


Listen

by SuccubustyKisses



Series: Multi Cloniverse [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Clone OCs - Freeform, Clones, Continuation after season 5, Eventual shance, Fighting, M/M, Violence, but mostly my attempt at a more serious fic, lots of clone ocs, please love my clone ocs, sad stuff, so au after that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-03-27 05:36:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 43,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13874268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuccubustyKisses/pseuds/SuccubustyKisses
Summary: When you can’t hear what you’re told to, you find another way to hear it. Or: Lance can’t stop thinking about what Shiro was trying to tell him, and as a result he makes a life changing decision.Preview:“Shiro!” Lance wakes up with a scream, sitting up in his bed. His hand is held in front of him as his chest heaves. Curling his fingers into a fist he pulls his hand down in front of his face, fighting back the frustration bubbling in his chest. “God damn it, Shiro.”Knowing he’s not going to get back to sleep Lance stands up, stretching his arms up high above his head. With a yawn he settles back down and slips his feet into his slippers, one red lion and one blue. With a sigh of resignation he opens his door and shuffles quietly into the hallway. His feet lead the way as his mind struggles to leave his dream and catch up. Before he can realize it he’s standing in front of Red, hands fisted at his sides.





	1. To The Lions

_“Lance, listen to me. I-“ Shiro’s mouth continues to move but no sound comes out._

_“You what? Shiro what are you trying to tell me?” Lance reaches out to grab ahold of him, fingers going through the body in front of him. He stumbles forward through Shiro onto his hands and knees. With wide eyes Lance turns to sit, first looking at his hands, then up at Shiro._

_Shiro’s body wavers, like a reflection in water it looks down at Lance, hand held to his own chest. “I’m sorry, Lance.”_

“Shiro!” Lance wakes up with a scream, sitting up in his bed. His hand is held in front of him as his chest heaves. Curling his fingers into a fist he pulls his hand down in front of his face, fighting back the frustration bubbling in his chest. “God damn it, Shiro.”

Knowing he’s not going to get back to sleep Lance stands up, stretching his arms up high above his head. With a yawn he settles back down and slips his feet into his slippers, one red lion and one blue. With a sigh of resignation he opens his door and shuffles quietly into the hallway. His feet lead the way as his mind struggles to leave his dream and catch up. Before he can realize it he’s standing in front of Red, hands fisted at his sides.

“Red, I know you’re not really one for bonding and talks about feelings… but, I can’t really go to Blue anymore, and I need help.” He reaches his hand up slowly petting along one of the red lion’s paw. With a quick jump he settles himself on the large paw leaning against the cold metal of her leg. With a soft hum a barrier raises up around them giving them a semblance of peace. Giving a grateful smile Lance hums to himself once again looking at his open hand in front of him.

“That day… when we were all in… I donno I guess it was the astral plane? Were you able to see us there? Because… I don’t know. Shiro was there, but he looked like a ghost… and he called out to me. I couldn’t hear what he was trying to say. It’s driving me nuts. Especially because now he acts like he wasn’t even there! I asked around and everyone else remembers going there… everyone but Shiro.” Reaching up to run his hand through his hair Lance lets out a loud groan of frustration. “What do you think I should do, girl?”

A rumble sounds around him followed by a flash in his brain. It’s quick and takes a minute for Lance to piece it together. A path through the castle. Down the halls stopping at the black lion’s hangar. Lance’s brows furrow in confusion as he cranes his head to look up at the Lion’s head above his. “You want me to go see Black?” Another rumble and the barrier goes down. Before Lance can even think about it the paw he was resting on moves flopping him less than gracefully onto his face at the exit. Pushing himself up onto hands and needs Lance scowls over his shoulder as Red settles back into sitting her barrier going up around her.

“Coulda been a bit more gentle with me.” He mumbles to himself pushing up to his feet and brushing himself off. “I’m delicate you know. I bruise easy.” Another rumble comes from the lion, almost sounding like a laugh. With a pout Lance turns and walks away following the steps in his memory to end up at the door to the black lion’s hangar. Looking all around to make sure no one is around to see him he steels his nerves before opening the door and walking inside.

His steps echo on the metal floor, the door closing behind him sounding twice as loud in his ears due to nerves. Swallowing around a lump in his throat he steps up to the barrier sparkling in front of him. “Uh… hey Black. I uh… well… Red, she told me I should come see you. That… maybe you can help me? You see I-“ he jumps back, startled when the barrier goes down, the lion in front of him shifting down until it’s face is resting in front of Lance.

“Oh. Okay, this is cool. Yeah, cool. Hi Black. So… yeah about that problem. Ever since the battle on Olkarion I’ve been having these flashes… and dreams. They’re all related to when we were all in the astral plane, with Shiro. I feel like if I just knew what he said I’d be able to sleep. Black, can you help me?” Holding his hand out slowly Lance steps forward until his palm presses into the cool metal of Black’s nose.

The world around him blurs, sparkles, then glows. Lance’s eyes widen as he looks around him at the sparkling of stars and rainbow blur of lights. It stays calm for only a moment before it starts moving, shifting and changing. First it shows Olkarion, then another planet nearby, followed by an alliance checkpoint, then another planet. The scene kept shifting slowly as if giving a path until it finally slowed to a stop near a brightly shining star, the blaze of the fire arching up flashing the shadow of a Galra cruiser.

“What are you doing?” Lance is slammed back into his body, the wold around him feeling cold, his reflexes slow as he turns towards the door. His eyes widen as they meet with Shiro’s, narrowed in anger directed at him.

“Shiro?” Lance steps back, pulling his hand away from Black’s nose, startling when she shifts back up into sitting. “I was just-“

“Why are you here?” Shiro stomps forward, looming over Lance anger radiating off of him as he looks between Lance and Black. “Why were you touching Black? Why was she moving for you?”

“Shiro, listen to me-“

“No, Lance. You listen to me. You have done nothing but talk back to me lately, and now I find you here in the middle of the night. If you want to lead that bad then do it. Go on, pilot the black lion.” He waves his arm at the lion, nearly smacking Lance as he does so.

Lance steps back. “I don’t- that’s not why I’m here Shiro! Black was just-“

“I don’t want to hear your excuses Lance. I see it with my own eyes, you’re not even trying to hide it so why start now. It’s obvious you’re trying to take over. So do it. Go, take over Lance. Get in that lion and lead Voltron. Or stop fighting me, because I’m done arguing with you.”

Staring up into the angry face in front of him Lance sight, pushing his hands to put in his pockets, pouting when he slid past due to the lack of pockets in his pajamas. “Nevermind, Shiro. Just… forget I was even here.” Shrugging his shoulders he moves around Shiro and out the door heading down the hall towards his room. Stopping in front of his door he looks back the way he came, then down at his hand remembering the images he saw when he was touching Black.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out he walked into his room picking up his small communicator device and dialing in a contact he had memorized. A few ticks later and the screen fuzzes into view, Keith staring back at him, hair sticking up at all angles as he blinks sleepily into the screen. “Lance? What’s wrong?”

“Hey, Keith. I need you to do me a favor.”


	2. To Your Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Then take Voltron, Lance. Don’t just go running off all on your own to die.” Keith’s worry is barely masked by the scowl stamped across his face. 
> 
> “Why not? That’s what you did.” Lance drops his hand turning back to the star map, knowing his words were a low blow. “Look, Keith. I appreciate how worried you are for me. Really, I do. But, I have to do this and I need you to fill in for me while I’m gone. You already said you would so you can’t take it back. I’ll have my communicator on me so you can reach me if you’re ever actually worried about me.” He sends a confident smile over his shoulder. “Just think of it as a vacation. Away from the blade, and away from me! Two birds with one stone.”
> 
> “Lance-“
> 
> “You know with how many times members of this team have tried to sneak away on their own quests you’d think we’d start putting trackers on everyone or something.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! I just want to say thank you to EVERYONE for your kind words and kudos. They really do make me feel great! So here’s the next chapter, as scheduled... and the beginning of our adventure!

Lance looks up at the star map in front of him, his fingers trailing the path to the best of his memory. The door opens behind him causing him to jump jerking to shut down the map, only stopping when he sees Keith walk into the control room. He keeps walking forward waiting until the door shuts behind him before he speaks. “Lance, I know I already told you this, but are you sure you really want to do this?”

Nodding his head Lance pulls his hand back from the map turning to face Keith fully. “I have to, Keith. It’s not just a dream, and I’m not hallucinating from too much nunvil. Black told me I had to do this. Me, Keith. Not Shiro, not you, not even Allura. Something is going on and I’m the only one that has any clue about it.”

Keith glances over Lance’s shoulder at the map behind him. “Then take me with you, someone has to make sure you don’t go out there and die on your own.”

“I can’t, Keith.” Lance gives a sad smile placing his hand on Keith’s shoulder. “Voltron is needed now more than ever, and with me gone on this adventure someone needs to be here to pilot Red. Besides, she misses you, you never visit her anymore.”

“Then take Voltron, Lance. Don’t just go running off all on your own to die.” Keith’s worry is barely masked by the scowl stamped across his face.

“Why not? That’s what you did.” Lance drops his hand turning back to the star map, knowing his words were a low blow. “Look, Keith. I appreciate how worried you are for me. Really, I do. But, I have to do this and I need you to fill in for me while I’m gone. You already said you would so you can’t take it back. I’ll have my communicator on me so you can reach me if you’re ever actually worried about me.” He sends a confident smile over his shoulder. “Just think of it as a vacation. Away from the blade, and away from me! Two birds with one stone.”

“Lance-“

“You know with how many times members of this team have tried to sneak away on their own quests you’d think we’d start putting trackers on everyone or something.” Both men jump turning shocked expressions over to the shadows where Pidge sits, chin resting on her knees, watching them. “Not that I haven’t already done that behind all of your backs or anything.”

“Pidge I-“

“You don’t have to explain yourself to me, Lance. I get it. Hell, I was the first one to try and run off remember?” She stands up, walking over to look at the star map beside them. “All I ask is that before you go you let me get you some tech, a mobile star map, a distress signal, a few dozen weapons, maybe even a rover droid.”

“Pidge!” Lance turns lifting her up into a tight hug, squeezing tightly before slowly settling her back on her feet. “Thank you, I’m so glad you-“

“And you have to tell Hunk.” She quickly pushes away, crossing her arms at her chest and shooting a glare up at him. “He’s your best friend and you know he’ll be heartbroken if you just up and leave on this deadly quest without saying a word to him.”

“Piiiiidge.” Lance whines shoulders hunching as he looks down at her. “If I do that he’s going to make me feel even more guilty than I already do!”

“He’ll definitely pack you a bunch of food though.” Keith adds in with a small smile. “When I left he packed me so much food I still have leftovers back at the blade.”

“Just do it, Lance. Or I’ll hit this intercom button right now and tell everyone.” Pidge’s hand moves towards the controls, hovering over the button that broadcasts throughout the entire castle.

Diving forward Lance misses Pidge’s hand as she jumps out of the way, nearly pressing the button himself as he slams into the console. “Fine. I’ll tell Hunk. But you two have to come with me. Back me up so he doesn’t try to talk me out of it.”

With a satisfied smirk Pidge walks over to her chair, picking her laptop up off it and heading for the door. “Oh I intended to come anyway. I want to hear the full story on what’s going on, not just what you let out when you don’t realize I’m in the room.”

Keith shrugs and jogs to walk beside Pidge, looking down at her. “So were you in there the whole time?”

“I was doing some tests on the castle systems when I heard the door opening. I hid in the corner just in case it was an enemy and in walks Lance. I was about to step out and scold him for interrupting my work but he looked so serious as he pulled up the star map, and I was intrigued when he didn’t go directly to Earth.” Pidge shrugs, stopping in the open doorway to look back at Lance. “I gotta admit I was surprised to find out you two were plotting together behind everyone’s backs.”

“We weren’t plotting.” Lance pouts, stuffing his hands in his pockets and shuffling after them. “We were just discussing our already made out plans.”

“Sounds like plotting to me.” Pidge shrugs walking down the hall to Hunk’s room, giving no time to prepare before opening the door and sauntering inside. Giving a sympathetic look Keith follows her in leaving Lance to stand at the door and blink into the light as they flick it on.

“Wha!? What’s going on?” Hunk sits up in his bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and looking around in confusion at the people in his room. “Are we under attack? Or did I miss a meeting? Keith? Did you run out of food?”

Taking a deep breath Lance lets it out slowly as he walks into the room shutting the door behind him. “Hey, buddy. Sorry to wake you up at this ungodly hour but I have to tell you something and these two are here to babysit me and make sure I do it.”

“To be fair, I’m here to babysit you, Keith is just along for the ride.” Pidge pipes in sitting down on a desk near Hunk’s bed.

Stifling a yawn Hunk shifts to drape his feet off the bed, patting the space next to him. Taking the invite Lance sits down before immediately standing back up and pacing back and forth. His fingers twist together for a moment as he gathers his thought before he stops, looking down at his hand. “Hunk, I’m leaving.”

“You’re WHA-“

“Let me explain everything before you say anything.” Lance keeps pacing, his thoughts in a jumbled mess before he takes a deep breath and begins. “Back on Olkarion when we were in that treeball and we did that fancy thing with our bayards to get into the astral plane. After you guys disappeared Shiro called out to me. He said he had to tell me something. But, before I could hear what he had to say I was waking back up in the battle.”

“I tried asking him about it after it was all over but Shiro said he didn’t remember any of it. Which would be all find and dandy if I could do the same thing. But, I can’t! I just keep thinking about it. I’m losing sleep over it. A lot of sleep. So I asked Red about it.” Lance kept pacing, three sets of eyes following his every movement as he ran a hand through his hair.

“Truthfully, I didn’t expect her to answer me. Red isn’t really the type to have feelings jams with so when she actually invited me in to talk I was shocked enough. But then she fucking answered me, Hunk. She actually answered me… and she told me to go see Black.” Lance chucked to himself. “Then she literally threw me out of her hangar to do it. So I went to Black’s hangar, walked in expecting to talk to a partical barrier for a little while before giving up and trying to go back to sleep. But she moved.”

“No way!” Hunk looks with awe and excitement up at Lance. “Black reacted to you?”

“She did!! Her barrier dropped and she got down practically face to face with me! So I reached out to pat her nose and next thing I know she’s showing me this space map in my head. It lead to a Galra ship. Before I could ask her why she was showing me this Shiro came in.” Lance finally stopped pacing and flopped down on the bed, hand covering his eyes. “To say his reaction to me being there was unfriendly would be an understatement. So… I don’t actually know what any of this is leading me to. But, I have to go find that ship. And before you say you’ll come with me, don’t. Trust me I already had this talk with Keith. Voltron needs five paladins, and with Keith back while I’m gone you guys will be here to keep everyone safe.”

“Well then.” Hunk stands up, stretching, his back popping so loud the whole room hears it. “I better go prepare you a to-go bag.”

“Hunk!” Lance sits up, moisture clouding his vision as he looks at his friends. “What would I do without you guys.”

“Probably die.” Pidge pipes in, causing Keith to snicker and Lance to shoot them both a glare. “But, lucky for you you have us. So I’ll go prepare some tech for you, Hunk will pack you some food and probably tech of his own, and you will go with Keith to get your armor and pick some weapons. We’ll meet you at the escape shuttles.”

Wiping the moisture from his eyes and standing up straight Lance nodded. “Lets do this before someone else tries to stop me.”

 

Bag packed, weapons selected, and shuttle packed full of more food than he could possibly need Lance stood beside it, leaning over Pidge as she sat on the floor, gadgets spread out around her explaining each one. “This one is a traveling star map. Its pretty much just a more compact version of the one the ship has, but it will shift and move with you, and has a compass on the bottom so you know which way you’re going. You can zoom in to get specific maps of planets you’re on as well. But, I can’t guarantee how good those are as they’re based off of the current database of the castle.” They hand the wristwatch like item up to Lance waiting for him to strap it on before continuing. “This one here is still under testing, so don’t rely on it to keep you alive. Attach it to your armor and activate it and as long as you don’t come into contact with anything anywhere on your body except your feet you should, figuratively, stay cloaked.”

“No way! Pidge you really are a genius!” Lance snatched up the small button grinning down at it.

“Yes, well Hunk has helped me make 90% of these things so don’t leave him out. Anyways, this is killer.” With an excited smile Pidge waves her arm and a triangular drone comes floating over to them. “Killer has been my most successful rover experiment up to date. He has a camera that will play back video to your armor screen, built in access to be able to contact us from anywhere, a distress beacon should anything go wrong, the ability to change what color it’s lights are, though he seems partial to blue, and he can shoot low power lasers at enemies.”

“You really did make me my own Rover.” Lance reaches up and wraps his fingers around the drone.

“I’m just loaning him to you so he better come back in perfect condition or you’ll owe me.” With a deep sigh Pidge stuffs all the tech into a bag along with a small memory chip. “The instructions and details of everything Hunk and I gave you are on this chip, so make sure to memorize it.” Flinging herself forward she wraps her arms around Lance’s waist causing him to startle letting go of Killer to hug her back. “And you better come back safe.”

Before either of them can pull away they’re both pulled into a back breaking hug, lifted into the air as Hunk crushes them to his chest. “You better call me every day Lance. If you don’t I will lead a search party after you. Don’t think I won’t. I’ll drag you back to this castle by your ear if I have to!”

They stood clinging to each other, all fighting back tears for longer than they probably should have, but none of them wanted to back away. When they finally did break apart they moved back, silently comforting each other as Lance stepped up to Keith. Holding out the red bayard he shot him a sad smirk and a wink. “You take care of my girl while I’m gone, Keith. I’m counting on you to keep her safe and happy.”

Keith rolls his eyes gripping the familiar weight in his hand. “Don’t forget she was mine first, idiot.”

“Yeah, that’s why I’m trusting you to take good care of her. Don’t forget to praise her after every battle! And don’t go running off to do work for the blade and leave her to have to go after you!” Lance sniffles, ignoring the tears streaming down his face as he holds his hand out to Keith.

Looking down at the hand Keith gives a huff of amusement before grabbing it and yanking him into a quick awkward hug, “hurry up and come back soon Lance. Voltron needs you a lot more than it ever needed me.”

Swallowing down urge to start sobbing Lance nods and climbs into the shuttle. Before he can let himself think about it he turns it on and leaves, heading for Olkarion, the first stop on his mental map. Trying hard, and failing, to not look back at his friends watching him go, matching looks of dread and worry on their faces. 


	3. To Your Mind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Actually…” Ryner stood walking past Lance. “I think I know of something you can do while you’re here. Come with me.” She exited the room not bothering to check behind her as she went. Lance moved to follow as they made their way through the building. They moved towards the back and exited quickly moving through the streets and into the density of the forest. 
> 
> “So… where we going?” 
> 
> “The garden of the mind.” Ryner said in a nonchalant manner walking around the trunk of a large tree, then across to a curtain of vines.

Lance gives a bright grin as he climbs out of the ship, waving at Ryner who stood waiting for his arrival. “Welcome back. Pidge informed me you would be coming by soon to refuel. If you are not in a hurry I would love to hear about your trip.”

Lance hopped out of the ship stretching with a satisfied sigh when his back pops. “Actually I wanted to ask your opinion on something so this works out great!” He walks beside Ryner, smiling and waving at everyone they pass until they’re in a room alone. As soon as the door shuts behind him he physically deflates, his shoulders hunching forward. He lets out a loud sigh before sending Ryner a reassuring smile. “Sorry, I haven’t been sleeping well so it’s hard to keep up the appearance for people.”

“Being a Paladin of Voltron is not a show, Lance. You do not have to pretend for my people, we will like you no matter who you are because you are a great person… and a hero.” Ryner gives a soft smile over to him before sitting down on a nearby couch and waving to the seats. “Now, why don’t you sit and we can talk and see if I can help you on your mysterious quest.” 

Lance flopped onto the other end of the couch, relaxing into the cushion. He lulled his head back with a long exaggerated sigh before sitting up straight and making a serious face. “Okay, so what did Pidge tell you about what i’m doing?” 

“Just that the lions asked you to go somewhere and it started here on my planet.”

Lance nods pulling up the small star map Pidge gave him and pointing. “So the vision they gave me clearly showed Olkarion, then it moved to this planet.” He pointed to a nearby planet “which makes sense if its just showing a this is the way you go sorta thing but then it skipped to here.” His hand moves past three small planets and moons to stop on a different planet. “Then it goes here.” His hand keeps moving mapping out the path he memorized from planets to checkpoints, stopping at every one Black had stopped at in the vision until he got to the star at the end. 

“I’m guessing you think the lions wish you to stop at these places, since they showed them and not all of the planets?” Ryner looked at the map thoughtfully retracing the path in her mind. 

“Yeah, pretty much. Why else would they show me in such a weird pattern.” He followed the pattern again with his hands like he’s done many times before. “Do you think I should stop at every place?”

Ryner smiles. “It seems to me you already know what you’re going to do, Lance. I think you should follow your heart. This is something obviously important to you, so perhaps you should just listen to yourself more. It’s okay to follow your own instincts.” Her hand reached out, patting him on his shoulder. 

Lance’s smile was small as he nodded. “You’re right. So, is there anything you can tell me about any of my destinations?” 

“I’m afraid I don’t know much, due to my staying here to help refugees. But all of these planets have been liberated from the Galra by your team or the rebels.” She takes her hand from his shoulder and points to the first planet. “This is Sarec, the people here are tall, their skin is coarse, and they glow in the light of the blue sun. From what I hear their people were used for their venom in experiments by the Galra, but I’ve never witnessed any of the side effects of their bites in any of our reports or injuries that come here.”  
Her hand moves to point to the checkpoint “this is the checkpoint I deal with most, since it’s so close. The people there like to call and give me a heads up when more refugees are on their way here. From what I know it’s run by a typical group of different races of aliens. There is one man there who used to work undercover for the Galra similar to your Blade of Marmora does.”

“That could be useful, what about this one?” 

“That is planet Tinal. The people there are mostly aquatic. There is rumors that their people have magic one could only dream of, but they keep to themselves so no one really knows for sure.” Ryner shrugs moving her hand as if to wave away her lack of information on the planet.

Lance hums and nods looking at the planet before moving to the next “anything on this one?”

Slowly Ryner shakes her head. “I am sorry Lance, but I’m afraid I cannot think of anything about the other places in your quest off of my head. We can check research if you would like but it may take some time.”

“I don’t have much of that. Who knows when the team is gonna decide to drag me back, or worse… decide they don’t need me.” Lance forced a laugh at his attempt at a joke, knowing it was more of a fear than an actual joke before he pushed himself up into standing. “I think i’ll wander around for a bit to get rid of the jetlag then I’ll-“

“Actually…” Ryner stood walking past Lance. “I think I know of something you can do while you’re here. Come with me.” She exited the room not bothering to check behind her as she went. Lance moved to follow as they made their way through the building. They moved towards the back and exited quickly moving through the streets and into the density of the forest. 

“So… where we going?” 

“The garden of the mind.” Ryner said in a nonchalant manner walking around the trunk of a large tree, then across to a curtain of vines. Lance’s brows furrowed but he followed, eyes opening wide and mouth opening into a perfect ‘O’ as he passed the vines. The area had a small stream, flowing into a lake which moved with an unnatural currant. Flowers bloomed all around, white and glowing, the only light that showed around the garden through the thick canopy of trees above them. “Welcome, to the start of your quest, Paladin Lance.”

“I know your planet has the whole… magic plants thing, but this is still amazing to me.” Lance grinned moving to look at the flowers around him. “They’re beautiful.”

“Yes, and they are what you need to do your quest.” Ryner moved over towards the lake, turning at its banks to look back at Lance. “The garden of the mind is a sacred place for the Olkari. The ancient Olkari used to come here when they needed confidence, or assistance. It’s a place of calm and meditation. Though it does not help most, the garden is said to assist those who are pure of heart, who’s problems are just, or sometimes they just get lucky.” She smiles and shrugs. 

“So you think this garden will help me?” Lance reached out, finger tracing the glowing petals of a flower, grin growing impossibly wider as the glow brightens. 

“I believe it will.” Ryner gives a smile filled with something that looks almost like pride. “Most people do their meditation in the lake of reflection. But, it only works while you are alone. So I must leave you here. Can you find your way back or shall I wait for you outside?”

“I memorized the path.” Lance turns from the flower he was playing with to walk over to the lake, “thank you, Ryner. You’ve been a big help.” 

He watched her leave, giving one last smile and wave before she disappeared behind the vines. With a shrug he flopped down on the ground and slipped off his shoes and socks, yanking at his pants legs as much as he can until they’re crowded uncomfortably under his knees. Dipping his feet into the water he’s pleasantly surprised to find the water warm, watching with curious eyes as it doesn’t ripple around his movements and instead simply indents in around him. Pushing himself up into standing on the soft dirt under the water he shuffles his feet enthralled by the strange water. 

After wasting enough time with his own curiosity he shuffled to the center of the shallow lake and looked up at the canopy of leaves overhead. “Okay, here I am. Wish this place came with an instruction manual.” He frowned looking around at all the flowers before his eyes settled on the one he’d touched before. Its glow brighter than the rest. “Maybe if just… close my eyes and think about it?” 

Taking a deep breath he closed his eyes letting his body relax as he breathes out. He lets his mind wander, thinking about all the information he’s gathered. Which, sadly isn’t much yet. He thinks about the planets, the star map, the path he’s going to take. He thinks about his friends, and Killer who he left back on the ship. He thinks about the lions. About blue, and how she still sends him pulses of comfort in battle sometimes. About red, and how she’s always trying to encourage him to speak out and to defend himself. 

His mind wanders to the black lion. He thinks about how she reacted to him, her position of trust, the feeling of metal under his fingers. His hand feels warm, with a small frown he opens his eyes, his face quickly morphing to one of surprise and confusion as he looks around him. He’s once again surrounded by dark blues and blacks. Sparkles of light flashing around him. The garden is gone, the flowers no more, the weird water no longer surrounding his feet. 

Stepping forward he watched his feet, seeing the ground glow lightly around them as he moves through the darkness. “Black? Are you here?” 

“Lance?” His body whips around before his mind can catch up. Eyes settling on a flash of white among the darkness. Blinking quickly and rubbing at his eyes Lance opens his eyes again looking up into glowing gray eyes. “Lance, are you really here?”

“Shiro.” Swallowing hard around the sudden lump in his throat Lance forgets to breathe, watching as Shiro steps forward, first in slow unsure steps. He quickly speeds up and before Lance can register what’s happening he’s pressed against the warmth of Shiro’s chest, a nose pressed hard into his neck as he’s squeezed too tight. 

“You’re here. It’s you. God, Lance I’m so sorry. I keep seeing you. I think I’m going crazy. Every time I try to talk to you… every single time. You just look scared and disappear. But you’re not disappearing now. You’re here. You’re here and I’m touching you and I’m not going crazy.” With a forceful shove Shiro pushes Lance back to stare down at him a look of worry suddenly filling his face. “Why are you here?”

“Shiro, I don’t even know where here is, let alone how I got here. A minute ago I was standing in weird water that moved like jello and now I’m here being bruised by your grip and getting more confused by the minute.” Shiro apologized, his grip loosening but not letting go. “Shiro, aren’t you mad at me? I mean… last time I saw you, you were yelling at me for talking to black. Now here I am far away from the castle ship, having ditched my duties and run off on my own selfish quest. Shouldn’t you be… mad?”

“Lance, listen to me. I’m not-“ the world around him swirled, Shiro’s look of anguish the last thing Lance sees before he’s falling backwards landing with a hard crash in the weird water, noting how it didn’t splash around him. His body felt freezing and he gasped for air like he hadn’t breathed in a long time. Vibrations rumbled up his leg shaking him out of his thoughts completely. 

Scrambling for his pocket he pulled out his communicator flipping the button to answer the call. The screen lit up showing an angry gray glare with a deep scowl. “Lance, what do you think you’re doing.”

“Shiro,” Lance laughs nervously running a hand through his wet hair. “Hey, buddy. What’s up. I’m just sitting here in some weird jello water. Noth-“

“Did I tell you to leave?” Shiro’s frown deepened.

Sighing Lance pushed himself to sit up straight before hunching forward in the water. “You might as well have. Look, Shiro. I know you’re mad I left the team and all… bla bla bla war and responsibilities. I get it. But, Keith is there to pilot red while I’m gone.”

“Lance. I’m not mad you left. I’m just…” he lets out a long breath looking down before looking back up again. “I’m sorry Lance. I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that. Keith won’t tell me why you left. Everyone else acts like they don’t know anything and I’m worried. You’re going to come back, right?” 

Lance flashes a grin winking and shooting a finger gun at him. “You can’t get rid of me that easy. I’ll be back before you know it. This is just something I have to do.”

“And what exactly is it you’re doing.” Shiro’s frown is more of a pout now. 

“I’m trying to find….” Lance frowns again looking across the garden at the flower he’d touched, confused when he found the spot empty. “Something…”

Shiro’s sigh is loud, obviously frustrated, and sounded tired. “Okay I guess no one is going to clue me in on this. It’s fine just be careful Lance.”

“Don’t worry Shiro. I already promised to call every day. You just worry about saving the universe. Anyways I gotta go, don’t think I’m supposed to be on my phone in this place. Bye Shiro!” Before he can say anything in reply Lance flicks off the call and drops his hand into the water. Groaning loudly he looks up at the canopy above him. “I don’t get it!” 

A glow of light draws his eyes back down to the water, shock once again crossing his features as he sees the water dancing around a brightly glowing bloom. The petals flashing blue, red, black, purple, back to blue again. Pulsing in the rhythm of a heartbeat. Biting his lip he reaches forward touching the soft petals, watching as they glow impossibly brighter before swirling a multitude of colors then turning a soft barely glowing royal purple. 

Before he can think further about it Lance scoops up the bloom stuffing it into his pocket as he stands up. He hurries over to his shoes not even bothering to put them on he just snatches them up and rushes out of the garden. Ignoring the pain of running through the forest in his bare feet he hurries through the trees towards the main town of Olkari and his ship. Intent to quickly continue his trip. His hand slipping back into his pocket to brush warm pulsing petals.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! I almost missed this week’s deadline cuz I had to use all my free time sewing cosplay for myself and my daughter then went to a small nonprofit convention near where I live called animatic con! If you guys would like to see the cutest Pidge cosplay ever pop over to my tumblr and check out my daughter! For a quick find look up the tag cici. I’d link it but i’m on mobile.


	4. To The Son

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With an exaggerated sigh he walks in looking as best he can between buildings and through windows to find someone to talk to. “Hey killer, do you see anyone with your scanners?” The robot flies ahead scanning around a few houses before coming back, with soft beeps and a flash of red it gives a negative reply. “Damn…” he blew out a puff of air looking up at the sky and thinking about what Ryner had told him. “Tall, coarse, poisonous…. And they glow in the light of the blue sun… hey Killer! Can you make your scan beam similar to the light of a blue star?“ 
> 
> Killer blinked slowly flashing yellow before beeping rapidly and moving to scan again, the beam coming out wider and a dark shade of blue as it ran across the ground and up a building. Lance watched it move eyes widening when it passed over an alley between two shacks and a light blue glow shone back. “THERE!”

Lance frowned looking down at the planet Sarec. The bulk of the planet was covered in a marsh, greens coming out of dark water which rippled with the strong wind blowing around him. He circled the planet twice, zooming in as best he could with the ship’s cameras but only found small villages with huts made of wood, and the only living species he seemed to find were flora, fauna, and fish moving through the waters.

With a sigh of resignation he picked a larger looking village and parked his ship on a small flat of land outside the town, careful to avoid anything that looked like a harvest. “Well killer. Lets say we go see if we can find anyone.” Scooping up the purple flower from the ship’s console he stuffed it into his pocket and headed for the door, the reformed galra bot excitedly bouncing behind him beeping and flashing a rainbow of colors. Chuckling to the robot he grabbed a blaster from the pile of weapons Keith made him bring along with a knife and strapped them to his waist.

Exiting the ship was harder than he expected as he opened the door he was pushed backwards by a strong blast of wind, Killer nearly smacking into the side of the ship with its force. “Woah! Wind is stronger than I expected.” He laughed. “Can you take it lil man, or should I leave you in the ship again?” Killer flashed a bright red beeping rapidly as if offended before zooming out the door. Laughing loudly Lance followed it out, his feet sinking in the soft wet soil.

Groaning he sloshed forward through the muck, Killer swirling around his head with excited beeps flashing yellow and green. With exaggerated stomps he made his way across to the village. “HELLO?” He looks around, not catching any movement as he goes. “IS THERE ANYONE HERE? MY NAME IS LANCE! I JUST WANT TO TALK IT WON’T TAKE LONG!”

With an exaggerated sigh he walks in looking as best he can between buildings and through windows to find someone to talk to. “Hey killer, do you see anyone with your scanners?” The robot flies ahead scanning around a few houses before coming back, with soft beeps and a flash of red it gives a negative reply. “Damn…” he blew out a puff of air looking up at the sky and thinking about what Ryner had told him. “Tall, coarse, poisonous…. And they glow in the light of the blue sun… hey Killer! Can you make your scan beam similar to the light of a blue star?“

Killer blinked slowly flashing yellow before beeping rapidly and moving to scan again, the beam coming out wider and a dark shade of blue as it ran across the ground and up a building. Lance watched it move eyes widening when it passed over an alley between two shacks and a light blue glow shone back. “THERE!” Before he could try to interact with the glowing form in the blue light an arm wrapped around his neck yanking him off his feet.

Without thinking about it Lance wrapped his arm around the hard appendage jerking forward and pulling sending the creature tumbling over him onto the ground. He opened his eyes frowning when he didn’t see anything on the ground in front of him. “Killer bring your scanner over he-“ he’s cut off by impact to his stomach causing him to double over. A large hand cracks down on his back toppling him forward. Flipping around he grabs the gun from its holster holding it into the air while Killer moves the blue light to shine in a wide circle around him.

His eyes scanned the area from where he’s propped up on his elbow, gun held tight in both hands. “I didn’t come here to fight.” He tried again looking for any sign of glowing or movement. “My name is Lance, I’m a paladin of Voltron. I’m on a quest given to me by the lions, they told me to come here. Please, I just want to talk.”

A deep rumble of a voice sounded from his left, moving around just outside the light as it spoke. “You think us fools? You have a Galra drone and you expect us to believe you’re a Paladin of Voltron. Don’t be stupid. Leave now before I decide to kill you.”

“I can’t.” Lance put the gun back on his hip, holding his empty hands up in front of him. “I have to do this, and I was told to come here.” A flash of blue glowed in front of him, curling his knees up to his chest Lance took the impact of the body on top of him and kicked our sending it hurtling through the air, crashing to the ground with a pop of color, settling into a dark brown before starting to shimmer into nothing again.

“Oh no you don’t!!” Lance jumped up diving forward, pulling the knife from his belt he landed on top of the hard body pointing his knife towards it’s neck. “Just listen to me!”

“ENOUGH!!” The ground practically shook around the angry roar above them. With wide eyes both Lance and the Sarec native looked up at bright green skin, tall lanky form, and small black eyes trained down on them. Her head held no hair but ridges of spikes that started at her brown and moved over her head and probably down her back. The Sarec wore no clothes, their bodies smooth and reptilian, but Lance could feel the ridges of scales of the male under him. “Stand down, Tonchi. The boy speaks the truth. I have seen the Paladins of Voltron, and this is the one who associates with the color red.”

The body under him seems to relax, a hand dropping down to its side, a long spike sticking out of it’s wrist dripping with what Lance can only assume was the poison he was warned about. Letting out a breath Lance stood up putting his knife away. “Thank you.”

“You should count yourself lucky, Paladin of Voltron, if I had not intervened when I did you would have been injected with our toxins.” The woman stepped around them going through Killer’s beam of light, her body glowing blue as it shown on her. “Come with me we shall speak in my home.”

“Mistress I don’t think i-“

“No Tonchi, you do not think.” She turned to the boy, the ridges on her head flaring up in her anger. “You are not the one in charge of this town, and you should consider it’s welfare before you go acting so stupid. If you had killed him you would have surely made Voltron our enemies, and we cannot afford for such a thing to happen.”

She turned back around and moved past the buildings, figures of brown and green stepping out to watch as Lance hurried to follow, Killer hovering behind him. “I’m sorry if I’ve caused trouble. I tried to send a communication when I arrived on the planet but my scanners didn’t pick up anything.

“My people do not use your technologies. We are a simple people who wish to just live in peace here. Once a year a ship will come from a neighboring planet to pick up anyone who wishes to live outside our ways, but we are content with how we live.” She looks over her shoulder at her, her large mouth quirking up at the corner. “Come in, Lance of Voltron. Let us see if I can help you on your lion’s quest.”

Lance followed her into one of the shacks, settling into a woven wooden chair she signals him to. “Thank you again, for back there, and for talking to me. I really didn’t mean to cause any trouble. Killer here is a reprogrammed drone my fellow paladin gave me to keep me company while I travel. I didn’t even think about people taking him badly.”

The woman smiled, her boney, webbed hands settling into her lap. “Thank you, Paladin of Voltron. Without you my people would still be in slavery, my own son used for their brutal experiments. Now, how may I assist you?”

“Actually, that’s why I’m here.” Lance taps his fingers on his leg as he starts talking. “Ryner of Olkarion said the Galra were using your people in experiments on your venom. I’m hoping this might be a clue for what I’m looking for.”

The woman tilted her head, her unblinking eyes staring at him as she contemplates his words. “And what is it you are looking for.”

Lance sighs. “I wish I knew. All I know is the path the lions showed me, which included your planet, and a galra ship stationed near a large yellow star.”

She hummed to herself before pushing herself to her feet, waving Lance off when he went to stand himself. “I believe you will best benefit from speaking with my son, Convre. I will call to him.” She stepped just out the door, Lance watching her move, a long thick tail dragging the ground behind her. With a rumble across the ground she made her call before heading back in and taking her seat on the woven wood couch. “Give it just a moment, Convre will be here soon.”

“Thank you again.” Lance smiled. The curtain in front of the door quickly parting to let in a black scaled male. Slightly shorter than the woman but the ridges on his head and back longer and more spiked. His eyes are almost invisible in the black of his skin. He glances over at Lance before walking wide around him and stopping in front of her.

“You called me, mother?”he glanced back uneasy at Lance as he spoke.

Her smile turned soft, filled with love as she pat the couch next to her. “Sit, my son. I want you to meet Lance, he is a Paladin of Voltron. He’s come here to ask about what happened when our people were held by the Galra, and I found you best to answer his questions.”

Convre’s frown deepened as he turned to look fully at Lance. “Mother, I don’t want others to know what they’ve done to us… to me.”

“I know dear. You have my word the paladin will not spread word of your affliction. Perhaps in his travels he can find a cure.” She reached her hand up to hold his, rubbing her thumb in gentle circles. With a soft tug she pulls him down to the seat beside her. “Now, as your questions Paladin Lance.”

Lance nods “I promise, I’ll keep your secrets. I’m just… looking for answers. You see… a friend of mine was captured by the Galra a long time ago. He escaped with the help of the Blade of Marmora. But, then he was captured again.” Lance’s fingers started tapping on his leg again. “He escaped again, and we found him. But, ever since he’s come back he’s been… a different person. At first I thought it was just stress or PTSD but then I had this… vision… and when I asked the lions what they thought. Well, they sent me here.”

Lance reached into his pocket pulling out the glowing flower, running his fingers over its soft petals, feeling it’s heartbeat like pulse under his touch. “Please, if you know anything that can help me figure it out… I want to help him.”

Convre looks down at the flower, watching Lance’s fingers move for a moment before he nods to himself. “When the Galra took me, I’d assumed they were going to put me in their fights for entertainment. But instead I awoke strapped to a cold table. They had a machine attached to my stinger, it was draining my poison from me at their will.” He shuddered, his arms wrapping around himself as he continued. “I watched them bottle it up then bring in this… long silver woman… she had so many chains attached to her body, once she tried to tell them she needed rest and the restraints electrocuted her. God it was terrible to watch.”

“Why were they giving her your poison?” Lance tried to look sympathetic around his confusion, but he was sure he failed.

“She would touch it and somehow it would… change. Sometimes the color, sometimes the texture, but it always changed. Then they’d put it in a needle and inject it into some poor captured fool.” He dropped his arms, looking down at his open hands instead. “The results were the same at first, what you would expect from a sting by my people, sometimes it was worse than others. But then one day… they didn’t die. They… changed. Like some sort of bloodthirsty monster. They broke free and killed four guards before they were secured again.”

“Wait, so the silver woman made your venom into something else completely, with just a touch?” Lance’s hands cupped around the flower it’s glow seeping between his fingers.

Convre nodded. “They kept doing it, I don’t know if they were just making monsters for entertainment or battle… all I know is they did it until there was no venom left in my body. I was unable to produce more, my sacs having stopped working from all the abuse. Once they were done with me they sent me away, probably to fight in their entertainment shows. But that’s when the rebel army found me and brought me home to my people.”

Lance sighs, pushing the flower back into his pocket before standing. “Thank you. I will keep an eye out for any way to fix your poison sac.” He looked up at the woman who stared down at her son with love and sorrow in her eyes. “It is good you were able to reunite with your mother. She’s clearly strong.”

Convre smiled up at his mother before nodding to Lance. With a wave over his shoulder Lance left the hut, Killer beeping happily as he swayed in the wind. “Come on Killer. We’re done here.” The drone beeps, circling around his waist area a few times before shooting forward towards the ship. Lance nodded to the Sarec people as he passed, hand in his pocket unconsciously rubbing against the flower’s petals. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Sunday! Thank you for reading my beautiful readers I love you and have to say how unbelievably excited I am for you guys to get to next week’s chapter. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the chapter!!


	5. To The Rebel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “No, Barthok you don’t think. We all know how you feel about voltron taking up such a front celebrity like face for the war. But, you are letting your feelings cloud your judgement which could cause us major issues for such a useless trivial reason as letting him come onboard and talk to us.” The voice continued, the fish man growing a deep blue in the face as his mouth opens and closes soundlessly.
> 
> “I was just trying to keep you-“ he tried again, not even looking at the camera now as Lance watched in amusement.
> 
> “Don’t bullshit me Barthok.” The voice lowered into an almost ominous level. “You will grant the paladin Lance access to this ship IMMEDIATELY and then you will go to your quarters and think about your stance on this war, because making an enemy of voltron would be a terrible decision, don’t you agree?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Easter! I spent $80 on toys for my daughter’s basket and all she cares about is the candy. Ah well, tis the life! Enjoy!

“So you want me to look into a very specific type of poison.” Pidge looked unamused as she stared back through the screen in front of him.

Lance’s smile was a bit guilty as he looked to the side. “Yes?”

“And you’re not going to give me any details as to WHY I’ll be using my free time to look into everything I can find about this poison?” Pidge’s blink was slow as she stared down at him.

Lance laughed nervously scratching at his cheek. “Its just… something… cool?”

Pidge sighs, loud and dramatic. “You gonna clue me in later.”

“DEAL!” Lance grins brightly back at her now. “Anyway, thanks for your help. Let everyone know I’m still doing good. I’ll call Hunk later. Give the princess my love.”

“I feel like at this point your attraction to Allura is just a running joke.” Pidge’s smirk is amused and obviously teasing as she leans forward closer to the camera.

Lance gasps loudly putting his hand on his chest dramatically. “Why I never! My love for the princess is pure and genuine!” They both burst out laughing, Pidge wiping a tear from the corner of her eye.

“We miss you around here man. It’s too quiet without you.”

Lance smiles softly back. “I’ll be back before you guys know it. Bye Pidgepodge.”

“Later idiot. Don’t be late calling Hunk, he doesn’t need any more anxiety. Later Killer! Keep him safe okay?” The call cut off leaving Lance staring at his own tired reflection in the window, lit up by the flower on his console and the sad slow blinking of Killer.

“Don’t worry boy. You’ll see her again soon.” Lance reaches up patting the sulking robot affectionately. “Now, lets get to that checkpoint!” Flicking on the ship again it starts moving again flying around the moon he was coasting by and towards a large ship port. Flicking on his ship’s communications he doesn’t have to wait long before the call comes in and he answers, a shortened catfish like face looking back at him through the screen.

Lance gives his brightest smile to the man along with an excited wave. “Hello! My name is La-“

“We know who you are Paladin. Why are you coming unannounced to our station? And why are you traveling in a carrier pod instead of your fancy super lion?” The fish man’s accent was deep and almost hard to understand. He looked very unamused through the screen at Lance, his large lips obviously down in a frown.

Smile faltering just a fraction Lance lowers his hand with an attempt at a nonchalant shrug. “The lions sent me on a solo mission without them. And part of this grand quest I was given includes your fantastic station. If you’ll allow me to come in I’ll happily ex-“

“I don’t believe that’s a good idea.” The fish man’s glassy eyes narrowed at the screen. “Until you are ready to tell us the reasoning behind yo-“

  
“Let him on Barthok.” A voice comes from off screen startling the fishman for a moment before he gives a loud sigh.

“Taki, I don’t think that’s wi-“

“No, Barthok you don’t think. We all know how you feel about voltron taking up such a front celebrity like face for the war. But, you are letting your feelings cloud your judgement which could cause us major issues for such a useless trivial reason as letting him come onboard and talk to us.” The voice continued, the fish man growing a deep blue in the face as his mouth opens and closes soundlessly.

“I was just trying to keep you-“ he tried again, not even looking at the camera now as Lance watched in amusement.

“Don’t bullshit me Barthok.” The voice lowered into an almost ominous level. “You will grant the paladin Lance access to this ship IMMEDIATELY and then you will go to your quarters and think about your stance on this war, because making an enemy of voltron would be a terrible decision, don’t you agree?”

“But Taki you’re-“

“I’ll tell you what I am, Barthok. I am annoyed with your pitiful excuse for reasoning, I am tired of your blatant hate for the members of voltron, and I am sick of you jumping to conclusions without knowing the facts. Lance is the paladin seen most in missions working with the members of the Blade of Marmora. He is also the one who first suggested the Galra outreach program for refugees and partial blood Galra who want no part of the war and just want someplace safe. So why, Barthok, would you think he would in any way shape or form have anything against me when it is well known to members of the alliance that I was a spy for the rebellion until recently?” Lance could see Barthok’s eyes widening comically as he swallowed hard.

Turning back to the screen Barthok took in Lance’s amused grin and visibly sulked. “Please bring your ship into dock 3 and a member of our team will meet you there.”

Before Lance could answer a flash of purple went across the screen and with an undignified screech Barthok disappeared from view, replaced instead with a smug Galra face. His skin was a lighter purple and appeared to be on the fuzzy side, his ears larger and more bat like on the side of his head. His hair was mostly white, but peeksof black showed through, and either pulled back or tied back, Lance couldn’t quite tell. His eyes were more human like than galra, with a large dark circular iris surrounded by the galra yellow in the sclera. The galra gave a very amused smile on human like lips flashing sharp fangs as he leaned over the console Barthok was seated at. “I will personally be meeting you in dock 3, Lance.”

“Oh, uh… thanks that’d be awesome. You’re the one I came here to see anyways!”

The galra’s smile grew. “I can’t wait.”

 

* * *

 

  
Exiting the ship Lance grinned and waved to the galra man leaning casually against the wall. He didn’t currently look like he cared much with his hunched stance, hands in pockets, long braid draped over his shoulder, wearing a gray tank top and darker sweat pants. His feet were even bare. Which Lance did not stare at too long to try to see any differences, other than the purple fuzzy thing they seemed mostly human. With a slight pout he looked up into amused eyes.

“Ah… sorry, just curious.” Lance laughed nervously scratching his cheek.

The galra laughed pushing off from the wall and walking over to Lance, holding a hand out in greeting. “It’s okay. Unfortunately for you most of my build is more my other half than galra, so you don’t really get to see anything special. My name is Taki, today is actually my off duty except emergencies day so sorry about my appearance.”

Lance winks flashing finger guns. “No need to be sorry I enjoy the view.”

Taki’s eyes widen, his ears spreading out and pointing up as his whole face turns a deep blue. They stare at each other, Lance suddenly feeling very self conscious about his joke before Taki laughs. Letting out the breath he didn’t realize he was holding Lance laughed along. “Well then, now that introductions are out of the way, why don’t we go sit down and you can tell me how I, a humble half galra, can help you on your grand lion’s quest.”

Taki wrapped his arm casually around Lance’s shoulder, leading him down the halls like they were old friends. Lance would later deny that he leaned into the touch, already missing physical contact without his friends, but for now he just smiled softly pressed against the warmth of the man’s side. “So why are you so casual with touch? If you don’t mind my asking I mean. Every galra I know has been very… anti affection.” Taki frowns and starts to pull away. Lance flounders. “Not that I’m complaining! I’m just curious is all!”

With a shrug Taki’s arm goes back to it’s previous position as he looks thoughtful. “Well as I already said, I’m only half galra, and my creation wasn’t exactly normal. If you want to be technical I’m really only a few years old!”

Lance gasped, choking on some saliva sending him into a coughing fit which only caused Taki to grin and laugh again. “How!?”

“Lets go in my room and we can talk.” He stopped at a door and started to open it up but when it got only a quarter of the way open he cursed and slammed it shut again. “Uh… actually… can I just… go clean up real quick, maybe?” The deep blue blush was back on his cheeks as Taki whipped around blocking off the door with his body.

Lance gave a confused nod watching Taki sigh in relief before opening the door behind him and trying to slip his body through as small an opening as possible. Curious Lance peeked around him as best as he could spotting only a flash of red on a poster before the door slammed shut. With a shrug Lance looks around the bland hall, hands stuffed in his jacket pocket, fingers on his left hand brushing the impossibly still silky soft petals of the glowing flower. He chuckled to himself as he heard the thumps and rustles of frantic cleaning from inside the room reminding him of back when he was on earth.

The door flies open, Taki panting as he leans against the door. “Okay, you can come in now. It’s safe.”

With a chuckle Lance walked into the room, eyebrow raised when he looks around the pristine room. Only pieces of adhesive on the wall and a mysterious lump on the bed out of place. “Boy, you sure clean fast.”

Taki’s blush returned as he offered Lance the chair for his desk, flopping down himself on the bed in front of the lump. “Well they say galra are fast.” He glanced around nervously.

“So did you actually send that fish looking man to his room like a child?” Lance’s eyes sparkled with mischief as he sat down, seeing a peek of red paper from one of the desk’s drawers. Pretending he doesn’t notice he looks at Taki expectantly.

“Well, yes. Thinking about your mistakes in the silence of your room is always a good way to realize how to prevent such things for next time.” Taki looked confused like it was an obvious thing to do.

Lance chuckles. “I feel like you’d get along well with my friend Shiro. He’s always doing such dadish things.”

Taki bites his lip, looking up nervously. “Yeah… I bet I would… Anyways!!! How can I help you on your mission Lance?”

“Oh, right! So here’s the thing.” Lance fidgets nervously. “I don’t actually know how?”

Taki raised a brow, lip quirking up with amusement. “So tell me what you know and I’ll see what I can do?”

“I’ll give you the quick version. Lets see…” he tapped at his chin in mock thought before continuing. “I was talking to the lions when they showed me a vision, a scattering of planets and this checkpoint. The lions don’t really speak in words so… it’s hard to tell what I’m looking for.”

“So what have you found so far?” Taki leaned forward resting his elbows on his knees, propping his chin in his hands.

“Well I learned about a chameleon like race who’s poison was being changed in experiments… and I got this cool magic flower that glows and pulses like a heartbeat. It also doesn’t die!”

“Ooohhh!” Taki’s eyes light up with curiosity. “Can I see it?”

“If you tell me something helpful.” Lance’s hand unconsciously went to his pocket.

Taki pouts. “But how am I supposed to know what’s helpful.”

“Well you could start with the details of your lack of your age… then maybe what you did for the galra?”

“Deal.” Taki nods before leaning back on his elbows on the bed. “Okay, so the druids came up with this crazy idea to create living super soldiers by combining the DNA of their best and strongest. But, with how impatient they are normal breeding methods were obviously a no-go… so they started Project Kuron. I sadly don’t know the details of how it works, but well… I was the first success. They combined the DNA of Haggar’s favorite general and a mysterious non galra they saw as powerful, which I would like to point out is quite rare for the galra so kudos to them, in some fancy machine and well… out popped me?”

“Wait, so you’re like some freaky test tube clone?” Lance’s eyes were wide and curious.

“Haha… yeah. It all went according to their plan at first. I was strong and fast like a galra, but smart and resourceful like the other. But I started having these dreams, then they started coming during the daytime, triggered by various things… flying a ship, for example, it felt like I was home behind the controls.” He sighed almost dreamily as he stretched his legs out, toes brushing against Lance’s pants. “Anyway, I’m not quite sure of it. But, I think they were memories of my non galra donator.”

“That’s pretty cool.”

Taki’s smile is bright. “Thanks. It… slowly changed me. I started feeling emotions, seeing the wrong the galra were doing, going behind their back to save people. That’s when the rebels found me. I worked for them for a while as a spy. Unfortunately I got caught. Thankfully the rebels were able to extract me before Haggar got ahold of me, but I’m sure they’ve made more creatures like me by now.” Taki flopped back on the lump, jumping when a muffled sound came out. Quickly looking up nervously at Lance he continued. “When I left the galra I decided to take a new name. Kuron wasn’t my name… it was just the weird way I was born. So I tried to leaf through my weird jumble of memories to figure it out and I came up with Taki. It… didn’t quite feel right at first. But, now it’s just me.”

“I like it. It’s a good name. Strong but still playful. A good fit for you.” Lance beams across the room at him sending another dark blush up Taki’s neck.

Once again avoiding eye contact Taki pokes at Lance’s leg with his foot. “A deal’s a deal Lance. Lemme see your magic flower.” Shaking his head at the change of subject Lance reaches into his pocket, tugging out the flower, feeling its pulse in his palm as he opens his hand for the other to see. “Woah!”

“Right? I’ve pretty much claimed it as my good luck charm at this point.” Lance Leans forward as Taki sits up, his arm reaching out towards the flower. “You can touch it… I think? As long as it doesn’t start acting different I guess it should be okay.”

Leaning forward Taki’s fingers brush lightly over the flower. Instantly it’s purple glow intensifies, the beating becoming harder. Lance jerks his hand back covering the flower, feeling the pulse of the beat through his whole body as he stares down at the bright glow between his fingers. “Ah, fuck. Please don’t be messed up little flower I didn’t think it would hurt to let him tou-“

“Lance?” Lance’s head jerks up to look at Taki who stares with glowing eyes back at him. His voice sounding differently than before. “Lance, what’s going on, where are we? How did I get out of th-“

“SHIRO???” Lance jumps up from the chair hesitant hands hovering over the galra man. “Shiro, is that you?”

“My head hurts… why do I feel so weird… Lance what did you do?” Taki holds his head in his hands for a moment before it jerks up to look at Lance. “Lance! I have to tell you! The Shi-“ Taki screams, falling back on the bed, rolling over gripping his head. The pulsing of the flower gets less rhythmic slamming in an erratic beat before suddenly stopping.

“Shiro? Shiro are you-“

“Your Shiro is gone.” Taki’s voice sounds back to normal as he curls in upon himself on the bed. “I’d accuse you of using me, but I could see the look of shock on your face when he appeared.”

“I am so sorry Taki. I didn’t… I don’t have any idea what just happened.” Lance jammed the flower back into his pocket before reaching out to touch Taki’s soft shoulder.

Taki peeked out from his curled up position, his confident smirk marred by the pain on his face. “No big deal. I’ve had worse. Let me just,” he pushed himself up, stumbling across the room to the door. “I’m gonna go get some painkillers. I’ll be right back.” Lance nods slowly as he disappears from the room.

With a frustrated groan Lance flings himself back on the bed pressing his hands over his eyes. He jumps when he hears muffled talking from underneath him. Sitting up he quickly looks up at the door before moving the covers and pulling out a plush toy of… himself. “Oh my god.”

He squeezes the toy. “hey, the name’s Lance.” It speaks back. He squeezes again with a grin. “ I’d love to be your hero.” Another squeeze. “Have no fear, your loverboy is here.”

“This is terrible!” He cackles setting the toy back on the bed, letting curiosity get the better of him he opens the desk drawer glancing inside at the red paper, it looked like a poster, stuffed haphazardly into the drawer. Pulling it out slowly he was once again greeted with his own face standing in front of the red lion, a confident smirk on his lips as he held up the red bayard in the form of a gun. “I can’t believe it…” he peeks into the drawer seeing a pile of smaller posters and pictures, all seeming to feature him. “He’s a fanboy!”

With a wide grin Lance sets the poster down on the desk grabbing a marker. He glances thoughtfully at the poster tapping his lips with the marker before grinning and uncapping it. I didn’t mean to knock you off your feet, but you left me feeling light. Lance. He ended it by drawing a heart next to his name. He nods to himself holding the poster up, turning to meet with a wide eyed frozen Taki standing in the doorway.

“Oh shit!” Lance jumps dropping the poster.

Taki looks down at it, a deep blue blush covering his face as he looks down at the poster, over to the opened drawer, then across to the haphazard bed, the plush Lance lying right in the middle. “I can explain!”

“What?” Lance blinks, leaning over to pick up the poster slowly.

“I… you see I was a big fan of the Voltron show. I don’t know why but it always made me feel warm when I watched it.” Taki started fidgeting. “Something about you just… you were my favorite. So I kind of made it my mission to collect every piece of your merchandise.”

Lance waves his free hand in the air. “Stop stop stop! It’s cool, I get it. Back on earth I obsessively collected everything I could find that had to do with Shiro. I even stole his pencil once.” He held out the poster, smiling softly. “I just thought I’d customize it for you. As an apology for the weird flower thing.”

Taki looks down at the poster, then back up at Lance. “I don’t know…” the corner of his mouth lifts up as he walks over taking the poster and setting it back on the desk. “Don’t get me wrong, the autograph is a dream come true… but I don’t know if it’s enough.”

Lance pouts. “I mean… I could give you something I guess.”

Taki’s grin is feral. “I know just the thing.” He moves forward, too fast for Lance to react, wrapping an arm around Lance’s waist and pulling him forward. With a hard crash their lips press together.

The kiss is short, ending before Lance can even register it in his brain. A quick swipe of tongue runs across his lips before all heat vanishes and Lance is shoved back into the hallway the door slamming in his face. The telltale click of a lock lets him know his time on this ship is clearly over. Pressing a finger to his lips he smiles softly. “Bye Taki. Thanks for everything.”

Turning on his heel he quickly walks down the hall towards his ship, jumping when he hears a muffled shout behind him “I CAN’T BELIEVE I DID THAT!!!” Bursting out laughing Lance continues down the hall, momentarily forgetting the incident with the flower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, now that I’ve released this chapter, let me just scream! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH I LOVE TAKI!! I know I’m bias cuz he is my own creation but HE IS PERFECT AND PRECIOUS AND I FUCKING LOVE HIM OKAY? 
> 
> I hope you guys like him too? I’m sure you can guess his DNA donors, I tried to make it pretty obvious. Gosh let me just fansqueal a bit more, AHHHHHHHHHHHH. 
> 
> Okay okay I’m done! Anyways! So i’m a nervous wreck when it comes to social situations, that being said I would love to reply to your comments you make. Like, even if its just to say thank you? I hope thats not silly or annoying of me... i just really want you guys to know how much I appreciate you... which is a lot... a hell of a lot... 
> 
> Anyways, happy easter again! Thank you!


	6. To The Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Are you going to be coming down any time sssoon Paladin, or can I go home and come back later?”
> 
> “I’m sorry?” Lance looked down at the planet then over to the speaker.
> 
> “Yesss yessss we know you are ssssso ssssoooorry you decided to delay your arrival by sssssitting on communicationssss for hourssss probably gosssssipping like a ssssshedling.” The voice sounded exasperated as it continued. “The ssssseerssss told of your arrival it isssss our fault to think that would mean your actual arrival. Sssseerssss can be ssssso cryptic. Now will you pleassssse come down sssso I can lead you to the ssssity and get back to my hatchlingssss?”

“Wait, so you kissed him?” Keith looked utterly confused in the camera, brows drawn together and lips pulled down in a pout as he stopped twirling the pen in his hand to look over the communications at Lance.

“Yes! Wait, no! HE kissed ME?” Lance flailed his hands as if trying to portray the meanings with them.

Keith deadpanned. “There’s a difference?”

“Absolutely Keith! God I don’t know why I even bother trying to tell you these things you just don’t understand.” Lance’s hands drop to the arms of his chair with a thump as he slouches down into it.

“I don’t either. Shouldn’t you be talking to Pidge or Hunk about the galra man you kissed. We both know I don’t get half the stuff you say.” The pen in Keith’s hand started moving again, twirling expertly from finger to finger.

“Because I know you won’t tell anyone if I ask you to. I’m still in the beginning of all of this and I don’t need any of the information to cause… problems… even something silly as me kissing a half galra.” Lance leans forward in his seat, closer to the screen. “I trust you.”

“I thought you said you didn’t kiss him.”

Lance’s hands fly up into the air and a loud groan rips from his throat as they smack down on his face. “KEITH THAT’S NOT THE- ARGHHHH HOW CAN YOU BE SO…. Okay nope I give up, you win, conversation is over. Goodnight Keith, I have a planet to visit.”

Keith’s smile is amused, laughter practically twinkling in his eyes as he waves to Lance. “Good luck, loverboy. Try not to make out with anyone this time.”

The call cuts out before Lance can reply leaving him scowling at his reflection in the window. “I can’t even with him! That’s it. From now on I will only be confiding in you, Killer.” The robot flashes quick angry shades of purple and red beeping rapidly before flying off into the back. “Geez… even robots turn me down.”

With an overdramatic sigh Lance turns back to his console preparing to enter the atmosphere of the planet below him when he saw the blinking light of an incoming call. Frowning in confusion he flicked the button to answer, the screen did not come up, only a voice echoed out of the speakers. “Are you going to be coming down any time sssoon Paladin, or can I go home and come back later?”

“I’m sorry?” Lance looked down at the planet then over to the speaker.

“Yesss yessss we know you are ssssso ssssoooorry you decided to delay your arrival by sssssitting on communicationssss for hourssss probably gosssssipping like a ssssshedling.” The voice sounded exasperated as it continued. “The ssssseerssss told of your arrival it isssss our fault to think that would mean your actual arrival. Sssseerssss can be ssssso cryptic. Now will you pleassssse come down sssso I can lead you to the ssssity and get back to my hatchlingssss?”

“Okay, okay I’m coming.” Taking care to breach the atmosphere safely Lance flies past the puffy yellow clouds through to look down on a white sand beach with purple waves rolling slowly ashore. “Woah!” He lands the ship on the beach a good distance from the waves and slowly climbs out, Killer hovering behind him.

“Issss your pet waterproof?” The voice from the communications calls from the water, echoing through the open air.

“Uh… I don’t actually know… Killer, are you waterproof?” The drone flashes a bright yellow before flying out to the water, dunking down in and swooping back up in a rainbow spray of water. “Well, I guess he is. Is it okay if I-“

“Jussst grab a hold of him, you will need to grip him and yourssself tightly to my body if you wissssh to reach our dessssstinassssion before your feeble hatchling lungsss fill with water.”

Lance looks around with a frown. “You… don’t turn invisible too, right?”

Laughter echos around him and the water shakes, water raising in an unnatural swirl before parting over iridescent scales, large spikes peeking up from the creatures spine as it comes into view. Its mouth is tilted up in amusement around sharp jagged teeth, its body long and thin, but massive at least the size of a humpback whale back on earth. It’s eyes shift, following Killer’s flight back to Lance, a cloudy blue with white dots in it. “Hello, paladin. I am Tre, sssseervant to the ssseersss. I have been sssent to retrieve you ssso you do not get losssst amongssst our wavessss.”

“Cool. That’s cool. This is cool. So I’m supposed to just like… climb on your back?” Lance grabbed a bag from the ship stuffing his knife and gun into it before coaxing Killer over and jamming him inside clicking the snaps on it shut before the drone could escape. “Sorry, Killer. I’ll let you out of there as soon as we get where we’re headed so do me a favor and don’t shoot me.”

Looping the bag onto his back Lance looks at the purple waves then over to the eel like creature. “You’re not going to eat me, right?”

Tre lets out a hissing laugh and swims closer to the shore, turning its back towards him. “You are much too sssssmall and boney to even be conssssidered a sssssnack.”

“Coooool.” He steps into the water, moving up to Tre until he got about mid back. It was easily three times his length, and nearly as tall as him in its largest part. “Let me know if I accidentally hurt you.” With an amused huff from Tre Lance reaches up wrapping his hands around one of the spikes, after giving it a gentle tug to find it hard and not easily broken he jumps, planting his feet to it’s side and climbing up to nestle between two spikes.

“Do hold on tight. I won’t be coming back for you sssshould you losssse your grip.” Tre didn’t wait for him to hold on before pushing up into the air and diving under the water. Barely getting time to grab a good air of breath Lance presses his face against the spike in front of him clinging for dear life with his eyes clamped shut as he feels water crash into his face in a painful onslaught due to the speed they were swimming. He could feel the muscles moving in the body underneath him as they moved, pain pulsing in his skull as he fought his body from attempting to take in a breath of the purple water.

Just as he felt like the burn of his lungs was going to be too much he felt warm air brush across his face, peeking his eyes open to see himself inside a cave he took a deep, gasping breath, his vision spotted from the strain of holding his breath for so long. “A little warning next time!”  
  
The hissing laugher came from under him again as Tre slides through the tunnels of the cave stopping when it reached a room illuminated with bright glittering orange stones. “Here’sssss your warning. It’ssss time for you to get off of me.” With an amused hiss Tre bucked it’s body, sending Lance splashing into the purple water below. Frowning at Tre as it moved up to an alcove of land Lance followed, walking up in the deep divots made by constant dragging of large serpentine bodies. “Thisss isss your sssstop, hatchling. You will find what you sssseek through there.” Tre tilted it’s head towards a small cave opening before laying down on the sand, letting out a deep purr like rumble.

An echo of squeals and giggles came from the cave opening followed by the sound of splashing. Soon the cave was loud filled with a multitude of human-like children with green and blue skin and hair that looked like thick tendrils instead of thin strands. Lance stared wide eyed as the children all let out similar purr like sounds and clambered all over Tre who relaxed under their touches with affection in her eyes. As her body relaxed a ripple seemed to go through it and Lance watched with wide eyes as a pair of large gray hands popped out of Tre’s mouth. The hands moved apart and with a wiggle and a an echoing of the sound of splashing water the mouth opens wide and a large humanoid upper body pops out.

The teeth of the fish body settled on Tre’s humanoid hips, sinking in in a way Lance would think painful but didn’t seem to affect her in the least as she opened her arms wide scooping up the swarm of children and pressing them to her muscled chest. She begins kissing them causing a chorus of giggles the children all clung to Tre some hugging back, some fighting for escape, and a few clinging to the long thick tendrils of her hair and climbing up her head. He watches with a soft smile missing his own mother’s doting hugs and forehead kisses before Tre looks up at him. “Sssshouldn’t you be going, Paladin? It issss not polite to leave othersss waiting.”

“Oh, right.” He turns to the cave stopping to let Killer out of his bag and send one last wave to the mother and her children. “Thanks again Tre.” She hummed and waved him off, and he turned back down the path into a darker cave. The light in the room was scarce leaving most of the cave and it’s contents in shadows. He walked to the center of the cave turning a slow circle to take in the space around him.

“You’re late.” A high pitched, almost excited voice comes from below him, startled he jumps back looking down into a pale blue skinned child, about the size of a 3 year old human, eyes wide and solid white her hair thick curls close to her head.

“We knew you would be.” Another voice this one seeming sad causes him to turn taking in another girl of the same size and skin tone with thick hair falling in waves down her back, eyes the same unblinking white as she frowned up at him.

“You always have been easily distracted.” The first one spoke again, her smile bright and excited as she slides over to stand next to her twin. “But you worked hard to keep up around those things. First for your family, then for yourself-“

“And now for the universe. But, you must not lose who you are, lest you lose who you are meant to be with.” The frowning one speaks again, sighing as she tilts her head to the side. “I have seen the many paths you can take.”

The happy one grins excitedly bouncing. “And i’ve seen the things you wish to know.”

“Not to break up this nightmare fuel but can we step back a minute and start from the beginning? I’m confused.” Lance takes a couple steps back, tripping on a rock and falling into a pillow laid in the middle of the ground.

“Oh! You did put it in the right spot, Future.” The happy one giggles with a clap as she bounces across the cave to stand by Lance again.

The sad one follows shuffling her feet. “Obviously I would, Past. I had to prevent the outcome of him hitting his head and bleeding on our floor.”

“Okay, I think I got it now.” He settles into the pillow pointing at the girls in turn. “So you answer to what you see. You see things I wish to know, or the past and what has already happened. You have seen the paths I can take, so you can see the future. That’s really-“

“Cool?” Future’s lip quirks up just a fraction as she sits cross legged on the ground in front of him.

“Yeah, cool… and creepy.” Lance laughs a bit as he scratches his cheek.

Past settles down next to future. “Would you like the answers you seek?”

“We cannot tell you all.”

“For every interaction brings about a different outcome.”

“And the best possible one, you follow on your own.”

Lance looks back and forth between the girls before tapping his finger on his knee. “Okay, so what can you tell me?”

“You currently walk two paths connected in the end.” Past waves a hand in the air, water waves up in front of her, shimmering brightly like a mirror reflecting light. It shimmers brightly, swirling around as an eerie glow comes from Past’s eyes. She opens her mouth but the voice that comes out is much deeper and more adult than before.

“ _Safety stolen_  
Powers abused  
Experiments done  
On beings misused  
Spirits lost  
Bodies surround  
The thing you seek  
May not be found.  
A trusted face  
Has been reborn  
But not within  
A child’s form.”

The water falls and Lance’s brows furrow his hands wringing together. “Are you saying everything I’m doing is for nothing?”

Past smiles shaking her head rapidly. “I cannot see what will happen, only what has already passed.”

“Can I get a translator? Maybe some keynotes?” Both girls laugh, their misty eyes sparkling with amusement.

“All I can give you out of vision is what I know of Dro.” She raises a hand stopping Lance as he opens his mouth. “Dro was one of our own. An age your people call a preteen, she had just come out of chrysalis to shed her hatchling form. She had rare silver scales, and lots of power. But, with that power came pride. She went out into the world searching fame, and because of it she was quickly captured by the Galra. Seeing her gift to change the forms of liquid to their advantage they made her constantly use her powers in their experiments. She helped create robeasts, helped make soldiers stronger, and mixed with the poison of the people of planet Sarec, she helped turn those who wanted happiness and peace into heartless animals. Dro was killed by an experiment who escaped it’s bounds.”

“So Dro was the silver woman Convre saw when he was in captivity.” Lance took in the girl’s nod and tapped at his leg again. “The Galra mixed Convre’s venom with Dro’s powers to create a toxin that took away people’s sanity… for what?”

“Entertainment.” Past’s eyes flashed before future’s hand clamped over her mouth.

“You must give no more.” Past nods and Future’s hand drops away. She turns her eyes up to Lance. “Do you wish to know what I can give you.”

“I doubt I’ll understand it but please, any help is welcome.”

Future nods and just as Past did she holds her hand up and water swirls in front of her like a mirror. When her mouth opens the voice that comes out is identical to the one Past had in her vision.

 _“The path you take is one that’s torn_  
By choices made of love and scorn  
A fathers love  
Children unborn  
Follow your heart  
Lest you break apart  
The blood has been shed  
Many left for the dead  
The answers you seek  
Are not made for the weak  
Do not trust what you hear  
Or run from your fear  
The soul that you treasure  
Is the key to your pleasure.”

“That… is a lot more than I expected.” Lance leans back on the pillow looking up at the dark cave above him. “I’m gonna get nightmares over this.”

“You already have nightmares.” Past adds brightly.

Lance laughs. “Don’t remind me.” He pushes up into standing, brushing himself off before turning to the girls. “Thank you, really. You didn’t have to see or help me.”

Future smiles up at him, small and soft. “The outcomes are brighter when you have help.”

“Oh, and Lance.” Past adds, tugging on his pant leg. “Don’t forget this, I hear it’s important.”

Lance’s eyes widen as he looks down at the glowing flower held in the girls small open hand. “You’re… touching it… and nothing is happening?”

“Past and I do not have what is needed for the flower to react.” Future stands up turning to walk away into the darkness. “Keep it with you at all times. It will prove most valuable.”

Lance nods picking up the flower carefully, thumb caressing it’s petals. “Thank you again.”

Past beams. “Tre will see you back to your ship.” She reaches up to Killer excited when he flies down to her level and lets her pat him. “Do not lose faith in your heart, Lance. It is a powerful thing.” She turns away following her sister into the darkness to disappear.

With one last look at where they walked off to Lance pushes the flower back in his pocket and heads for the way he came in. “Killer, I gotta tell ya. I’m glad they gave me some horrible cryptic prophecy, but those girls are officially the creepiest thing I have ever witnessed. And I’ve seen Keith space out and stare at nothing for hours without moving before… though I’m pretty sure he was just sleeping with his eyes open. Which is just as creepy!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the Seers are based off my daughter. Cute little ball of love and energy except in public. Past is her at home with people she knows, future is her in public when people force her to talk to them (which i hate and steer her away quickly). 
> 
> I love my merpeople though!


	7. To The Thief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He stopped at a booth full of breads and pies, closing his eyes he took a big whiff of a pie, letting out a satisfied sound as he opened his eyes back up. 
> 
> Looking at the wide variety he stopped when he saw a loaf of bread disappear from the table across from him. Tilting his head he glanced over at the shop keeper, selling a pie to a tall blue creature looked to be made entirely of liquid. Shifting slowly he looked beside the booth watching the form of a boy who couldn’t be more than 5 or 6 peeking over the table before reaching up and snatching another loaf stuffing it into his bag. 
> 
> Raising a brow he smirked when the boy looked up, realizing Lance had spotted him his gray eyes widened and he quickly clutched the large bag to his chest.

Lance bounces on the balls of his feet as he looks around at the streets in front of him packed with a multitude of booths, tents, and people with products laid out on blankets. He grinned over to killer who flew around his head flashing green and yellow and beeping in excitement. “It’s a swap moon! This is going to be great Killer! Oh god I haven’t gotten to enjoy a swap moon since I actually GOT money! I am going to buy so much stuff!”

Killer stopped flying around and moved to block his path flashing an angry red in his face. “I know, I know! I have to keep the mission in mind. Black sent me here for a reason and I have to figure out what it is… but… it won’t hurt to shop while I’m looking! Who knows I may find what I’m searching for in one of these shops!” Killer gave a long low beep before bonking against his head and floating up above his shoulder. “It’ll be fine, Killer. We’ll pick something up for everyone back at the castle too! Some cool food or tools for Hunk, weird tech shit for Pidge, I bet Keith would like one of those weird weapons over there, and maybe I can get Coran a pet… I bet he’d like a bird, and there are plenty of sparkly things for Allura!”

He frowned slowly looking around at the booths surrounding him. “But what should I get Shiro?” Killer gave another long low beep as Lance moved along the booths picking up random things and looking at them before either putting them back or handing over some GAC for the purchase and stuffing it into his bag. He stopped at a booth full of breads and pies, closing his eyes he took a big whiff of a pie, letting out a satisfied sound as he opened his eyes back up.

Looking at the wide variety he stopped when he saw a loaf of bread disappear from the table across from him. Tilting his head he glanced over at the shop keeper, selling a pie to a tall blue creature looked to be made entirely of liquid. Shifting slowly he looked beside the booth watching the form of a boy who couldn’t be more than 5 or 6 peeking over the table before reaching up and snatching another loaf stuffing it into his bag.

Raising a brow he smirked when the boy looked up, realizing Lance had spotted him his gray eyes widened and he quickly clutched the large bag to his chest. Lance’s smile quickly fell as he took in the boy’s appearance, hair cut into a shaggy mohawk, mostly black but the front white, gray eyes now narrowed in a too-familiar glare around his still baby fat chubby cheeks, and a frown too close to one Lance has had pointed in his direction many times. He swallowed the sudden lump around his throat as he watched small fingers move up to grab another loaf of bread, eyes not moving from their challenging glare up at him.

“THIEF!!” Lance whirled around to the crowd behind him, watching a child nearly identical to the one he was staring down run past followed by a group of guards. “IT’S THOSE FILTHY BRATS AGAIN! QUICK GRAB THE WEAPON WE WON’T LET THEM ESCAPE THIS TIME!” Lance watched the guards start to split up as a third and then fourth boy darted out of the shadows into the main street.

A small pat on his hand brought his attention down to the boy now standing beside him, bag draped over his shoulder as he looked smug up at him. “Thanks for not tattling on me Lance.” The boy grins flashing a missing front tooth and darts out into the crowd narrowly avoiding crashing into a guard as he cackles and turns to flip them the bird.

“GET READY MEN, THE SHIP SHOULD BE APPEARING ANY MOMENT THEN WE’LL GET THOSE BRATS ONCE AND FOR ALL!!” A few of the guards stand off to the side of the street large cannon like weapons held in their arms.

The group of boys all catch up with one another, five in total, moving with ease through the crowds. Skidding under people’s legs, jumping from the top of booths, even one up on a roof. “Uh… Killer, I think I found why I’m here.” Lance moved through the crowds harder than the group of children, bumping and pushing through people as he tried to keep them in his sights.

A woosh of air sends sand flying up around him as a Galra ship swoops down from above, a hatch opening from the back dropping ropes down into the crowd. The boys speed up jumping to grab at the ropes, climbing swiftly towards the opening in the ship, full bags strapped to their backs barely seeming to weigh them down.

“THAT’S IT! FIRE ON THE SHIP MEN! TAKE THEM DOWN!!” Lance’s eyes widened as he looked around seeing the guards lift their weapons up towards the ship.

“Ah, quiznak.” Lance flips his hood up over his face, darting through the crowd faster now as he grabs at random items tossing them to the guards to distract them. “Killer! I need you to make sure those kids get away!” Killer beeps rapidly flashing purple and blue before dashing forward crashing into guards and knocking weapons out of their hands as he heads towards the ship. A loud bang draws his attention to the streak of dust, pushed up by a laser like beam headed straight for the ship.

Jumping up onto a table then off a booth onto the roofs of the buildings around him picking up speed to try and catch up. The ship swerves the laser just in time, three of the boys still climbing the rope clinging tightly as it maneuvers away from the blast. Another loud bang sounds and Lance watches in horror as the beam slices through one of the ropes sending one of the boys screaming down towards the ground below. “Shit!” Lance pushes his body as hard as he can towards the falling boy, watching in horror knowing he won’t make it in time.

A chorus of rapid beeping zooms past him and Lance lets out a huge sigh as Killer smacks into the screaming boy. Using all the power it can Killer pushes itself up into the air towards the roofs in front of Lance, carrying the boy who now clings to him with wide terrified eyes. “DON’T LET HIM ESCSPE WE CAN USE HIM TO LURE IN THEIR LEADER AND END THIS!”

Lance turns to the street watching as the guards gather with their weapons aiming them towards Killer and the boy. Using his armload of stolen stash Lance attacked them, hitting them with small trinkets and apple like fruits until his arms are empty. Rushing forward he snatched the boy off of Killer and throws him over his shoulder running across the roofs as far from the guards as possible, killer speeding back up without the added weight to keep up with him.

Another loud boom echoed through the air and Lance dove for the next building, the impact of the blast on the wall behind him sending him skidding across the roof losing his grip on the young boy. Pushing himself up he looks around with ringing ears to find the boy standing on the other end of the roof looking with a frown up at the sky. Following his line of sight Lance watched the Galra ship disappear through the clouds and out of sight. “Son of a…”

“She’ll come back.” The boy walked forward glancing over at Killer before smiling up at Lance, his long two toned hair coming out of the tie at the nape of his neck. “Our big sister will never leave any of us hanging.”

“Sister?” Lance opens his mouth to ask more but is interrupted by the yelling from the street.

“I THINK WE KNOCKED EM OUT! I SEE THEIR ROBOT ON THAT ROOF!”

“Killer.” Lance turns to look up at the drone. “I need you to distract them long enough for me to get the boy-“

“Sho.”

“Right, long enough to get Sho back to the ship where he can hide until his sister comes for him.” Pulling his arms out of his coat he holds it up. “Ay, Sho, give Killer your coat.”

The boy looked skeptical but with a shake of his head pulled his coat off holding it up in the air, with one sweep of his beam Killer picks up the two coats and dashes off with them. “You honestly think anyone is going to fall for that?”

“THERE THEY GO I SEEN THEM RUNNING THAT WAY!!”

Lance grins looking down at Sho who’s wearing an impressed face. “You’d be surprised how dumb people can be when they’re frantic. Come on Lil’ man, lets get out of here before they realize.” Moving past Sho Lance moves to the back of the building looking down into the empty alleyway below, nodding to himself he hops down and turns holding his hands up. “Jump down, I’ll catch you.”

Sho gives an indignant snort and before Lance can react he’s jumped over towards the other building, bounces off it back to the first and bounces again down to the ground beside Lance. With a smug look he stands up brushing himself off and heading for the exit. “Keep up old man, I’d hate to leave you behind.”

“I’m not old!!” Lance shouts jogging after Sho as he moves to disappear into the crowd. A while later, and a bundle of anxiety that Lance feels like he won’t get back and Lance is opening the hatch to his ship and ushering the boy inside.

Sho walks in, hands in his front pockets as he spins on his heels looking at the ship. “Funny, I thought a Paladin of Voltron would travel more in style.”

“Yeah, and I thought I was starting to figure out what I was doing but here I am faced with an entirely different problem than the one I started with.” Lance drops his bag into a seat and moves to grab some food, taking a large bite he offers a portion to Sho. “Here, eat. You look hungry.”

“You just called me a problem and now you’re trying to feed me.” Sho tried to look unamused up at Lance but his eyes kept drifting back to the food. Lance rolled his own eyes shaking the food in front of Sho’s face until he finally snatched it and took a giant bite, letting out a happy groan as he chewed. “Oh god I knew Hunk could make food taste good but I didn’t realize how good.”

Lance blinked, looking down at Sho with a frown. “Hey Sho, how do you guys know about The Paladins?”

Sho shakes his head swallowing his bite before speaking. “Nu-uh. Dad said to never talk about the things people will think are weird. You wanna know you gotta talk to him.” He takes another bite happily crunching before he continues around a mouthful of food. “And you gotta get past Chihiro to get to Dad so good luck.” He shrugs.

“Is Chihiro the sister you mentioned before?” Lance watched the boy nod. “Does she have a way to find you when you guys get separated or should I-“ The communications in the ship starts to ring causing Lance to jump. Pulling out the phone like device from his pocket he sighs and stands up setting his food down on its wrapping. “Stay back here, okay?”

Sho rolls his eyes but nods as Lance moves up to answer the call. Expecting one of his fellow Paladins he’s confused when his eyes meet with those of a female he’d never met before. She was tall and fit enough that Lance could see her muscles easily from the tank top she was wearing, her hair was long and like the others it was black and white, pulled back into a ponytail with only a few pieces of the white escaped to fall into her face. She looked down at Lance with an unamused look before finally talking. “Paladin Lance. Cash tells me you have my brother.”

“You must be Chihiro.” Lance smiles brightly at the woman through the phone. “I have a boy named Sho here with me, a real group of trouble makers, your brothers are. Where would you like me to take him so you can pick him up?”

Chihiro smiles looking away from the screen before looking back. “No need to worry yourself over my family, Lance. Thank you for helping Sho earlier, and have a good day.”

“Wait, what? What about your-“ Lance is cut off by Killer flying in to beep rapidly at him. “Killer calm down what’s wrong?”

“Goodbye, Lance. It was good to see you.” The call disconnects and Lance stares down at the communicator before Killer bumps into his head beeping rapidly and flashing red.

“Okay okay, geez Killer, what’s wrong with you?” Killer flies out of the cockpit and into the back Lance follows with a confused frown before he sees the open door. He jerks around to look but doesn’t see Sho anywhere. “He… left.” Lance’s frown turned to jaw dropped shock when he looked at his pile of food finding it half gone. “And he took my food!”

Grumbling to himself Lance picked up his communicator and tried to call the last person back but only got a loud buzz of a disconnected line. “I would have given them the food if they just talked to me.” Glancing out the open door he sighs loudly looking up at the sky where he sees a flash of black disappearing in the clouds. “Hey Killer, how much you wanna bet we’ll be seeing them again on our next stop?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I have a list of notes today! The first is a big THANK YOU for all your love of my sweet oc’s. I’m not confident in making them so you guys have really helped me boost my confidence and I hope you continue to enjoy my work!
> 
> Secondly is my plans. If you are one of the lovely people who read my other works and doesnt pop in to my tumblr I just want to give you an update I’m working hard (currently have the next two chapters written) to finish Listen before season 6 comes out. Once i finish WRITING listen (writing, not posting) I will be taking some time to write A Familiar Feeling and A New Life chapters before putting them on an update schedule. I’m also almost done with Black’s Proposition (the prequel to Black’s Deal) i just need to take the time to get scenes right from s3 e1 & 2 but i’m a lazy ass with a short attention span! And FINALLY i have everything plotted/outlined in preparation for the shance au bang coming in may. 
> 
> Thank you for reading!


	8. To The Guard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Okay so maybe going head in wasn’t the best idea but you never know it could have worked.” He smiled over to killer who rapidly flashed yellow and red beeping so fast it was almost one long constant beep. “calm down my man we’re getting out of this stuff right n-“ 
> 
> The ship went dark, all controls locking as it fell back into the storm lurching sideways into a spiral of sand. Cursing Lance flipped the start, scowling when it didn’t get any response. The ship jerked the opposite way causing a crack in his neck he knew he was going to feel later as Lance started mashing buttons on the console. “Come on baby I need you to wake up for me.” 
> 
> A buzzing on his hip distracts him from the failed attempts at getting a response from the ship. Grabbing his communicator he looked at the unregistered number for only a moment before answering it. “Boy you really fucked that one up dincha, Lance?”

“Okay Killer.” Lance sent a confident, if not fake, smirk over his shoulder to the drone that floated nearby, blinking a slow unamused red back at him. “So I’ve scanned the whole planet and confirmed this sand storm is completely covering it and i’m pretty sure does not die. So, we’re just gonna pilot through it. Can’t be all that bad. I’m the best pilot out there after all… this shouldn’t be a problem!”

Killer’s flashes of red speed up and it flies down using its beams to lock the seatbelt of the co pilot chair and worming its way inside. “Oh haha, very funny.” With a sarcastic roll of his eyes Lance moved his hands to grip the controls, taking one slow deep breath he steeled his nerves before pushing the ship forward into the swirling red, orange, and pink sands of the planet below.

The wind crashed into the ship immediately sending it spiraling through the sand, visibility completely blocked Lance tried to spin the ship around to move with the wind. Quickly discovering this only led him into tornado like spirals he cursed and tried to pull up out of the atmosphere to rethink his plan. Ignoring the loud beeping from the ship and the annoyed drone in the seat beside him Lance moved the ship up, letting out a sigh of relief when he was able to see the stars above again.

“Okay so maybe going head in wasn’t the best idea but you never know it could have worked.” He smiled over to killer who rapidly flashed yellow and red beeping so fast it was almost one long constant beep. “calm down my man we’re getting out of this stuff right n-“

The ship went dark, all controls locking as it fell back into the storm lurching sideways into a spiral of sand. Cursing Lance flipped the start, scowling when it didn’t get any response. The ship jerked the opposite way causing a crack in his neck he knew he was going to feel later as Lance started mashing buttons on the console. “Come on baby I need you to wake up for me.”

A buzzing on his hip distracts him from the failed attempts at getting a response from the ship. Grabbing his communicator he looked at the unregistered number for only a moment before answering it. “Boy you really fucked that one up dincha, Lance?” A smug smile plays across the young boy’s lips as he leans his head on a hand turning gray eyes to the side in mock disinterested.

Frowning at the boy he glared at the image on his screen taking in the mohawk style of his black and white hair. “Did you just call me to gloat?”

The boy grins, a small laugh escaping his chest as he turned to properly face Lance on the screen. “Lucky for you I’m a nice person. You didn’t rat me out on Berunt so I’m here to return the favor.”

The ship lurches in the swirls of wind causing him to jerk to the side again. “You mean so you can steal more of my stuff?”

“You’re the idiot that came after us,” The boy looked overly smug as he leaned back in his chair. “Now shut up and do what I tell you to.”

“My ship isn’t even powering on.” Lance pushed the ignition again just to prove his point,

The boy laughed. “You really do have a lot to learn. You got sand in your engine genius. That thing isn’t going to power up until you clean it out. Now pump the brake, exactly five times. Then hit the booster button three times, after that I want you to turn the ship on even though it wont start you should be able to steer again, albeit a hell of a lot slower. Like driving a car down a hill in neutral.”

“You’re like five how would you know what that’s even like?” Lance glared at the boy but started doing as he said.

The unamused stare that looked back at him was one Lance knew too well and he involuntarily hunched over in defeat. “Don’t act dumb, Lance. We all know you’re a hell of a lot smarter than you act.”

“Okay okay. I get it just stop giving me the disappointed Shiro stare!” Turning the wheel Lance beamed when the ship ever so slowly moved.

“Kinda hard when its my face too, Lance.” The boy sighed before leaning back in his chair. “Okay so now you want to steer to and stay in the center of the spiral you’re in. In about…. Five minutes you’re going to notice the sand flinging back up at you weird. That’s when you need to steer yourself straight down. After that, you’re on your own.” He shrugged. “Good luck with Kuro.”

The line went dead and Lance stared at it in confusion before the ship jerked in the wind again reminding him of what he should be doing. With a curse and a string of annoyed beeps from beside him Lance moved the ship slowly to coast in the center of the tornado, moving it down as far as he dared as he coasted it along with the tornado and waited. Time passed excruciatingly slow before Lance started seeing the sand shoot back up from the bottom of the tornado. Putting all he can into the ship he pushed it down through the sand letting out a shocked screech when his vision cleared to a way too close ground.

Letting out even more curses he righted the ship the best he could, clinging with white knuckles as the ship skidded across the ground in a deafening screech. Finally it came to a stop and he let out a sigh of relief before looking over at the still rapidly beeping and angrily flashing Killer. “Hey lil man, we made it. Lets get out of here and see where we landed eh?”

The drone beeped in indignation before wiggling out of the seatbelt and over to the door not even waiting for Lance before he opened it and flew out into the sand-free open air. Chuckling to himself Lance grabbed his bag and stepped out after him, blinking as his eyes failed to adjust to the dark around him. “Killer, can you come light my way?”

Silence

“Hey Killer, I know you’re mad at me but I could really use the help.” A loud stream of beeps came from the darkness, dim flashes of red barely seen through the distance in the dark, but Killer did not come back. With an exaggerated sigh Lance climbed back into the ship grabbing a flashlight and flicking it on to shine into the thick darkness around him. “Come on Killer, we shouldn’t get separated.” He pleaded as he walked slowly through the dark looking for any sign of his robotic companion as he moved.

A soft crunch drew his light to shine down at his feet. Stepping back slowly his eyes widened as he dropped to his knees looking at the triangular drone at his feet, a jagged sparking hole pointed back at him. “KILLER??” With a squeak to his voice he dropped his flashlight picking up the sparkling metal to flip it over and look at the bottom. Cursing when he saw a small engraving of the word ‘punk’. “Quiznak! Killer, what happened??” Gripping his gun he looked around glaring into the darkness as he clutched the ruined drone to his chest.

 _Good luck with Kuro._ The smug amused voice echoed through his head as Lance reached out for the flashlight with slow hesitant fingers. Swallowing down his fear he called out. “Kuro? If that’s you… I’m not here to hurt you. I just want to talk.”

“Talking is boring.” The deep rumble came with a puff of warm breath against Lance’s ear causing him to jerk around waving his flashlight into the empty darkness. A hand trails cold fingers across his shoulder blades causing another jerking turn, dropping Killer to the floor as he holds his gun in one hand and the flashlight in the other. A chuckle comes from beside him. “Jumpy, aren’t you.”

“Yes well I can’t see you so you are startling me yes.” Lance takes a deep breath letting it out slowly. “So you don’t like to talk, what do you like to do?”

A thoughtful hum from beside him, Lance doesn’t flinch this time. “I’ve actually never been asked… well… anything.”

Lance furrowed his brows. “Really? Nothing at all?”

A laugh right in his ear again as a hand grips to his shoulder. “Mmm nope. I’ve been pleaded to, begged to, screamed at, and told to kill. Its an easy life.”

“Sounds boring. How about we try something more fun?” Lance steels himself not to jerk away from the grip.

“Killing you sounds fun,”

“For you maybe… and only for like a minute. I’m thinking we can work on more fun things that don’t involve murder and more importantly my death.” He takes another slow calming breath. “How about we play a game of tag?”

“Tag?” The voice sounded offended. “Isn’t that a children’s game?”

“Well yeah, but think about it. You like to kill, so you probably like to chase and hunt, right?” The voice simply hums a reply so Lance continues. “Tag is a lot like that, only without my death at the end. You give me a ten second head start, then run after me, hunt me down, catch me, we have a good friendly laugh then we can do it again, or I can chase you. Though your night vision is clearly better than mine. Even with the flashlight I can’t see anything.”

“So you want to run from me… and willingly have me chase you?” The voice sounded skeptical.

“Sure? It can be a lot of fun especially in groups.” Lance puts his gun away slowly and reaches up to grab the hand on his shoulder turning to squint unsuccessfully into the dark seeing only a yellow glow in the dim flashlight he didn’t bother to lift. “The rules are simple, you count and I run. After you reach ten you chase me, you can tag me, tackle me, catch and lift me, pretty much anything that wont seriously HURT me.”

“And when I catch you, then what?” The hand moved away from him, stepping back.

Lance shrugs. “Then we can play again, we could play something else that doesn’t involve me dying, or we can go inside and talk to the people I know are here.”

He hums again before making a noise of indifference. “Sure, lets play your game. If I get bored I’ll just kill you.”

Lance sighs. “Fine fine. But, let me put Killer back on the ship.” He crouches down to pick up the pieces of his robotic friend startled when his hands are shooed away by a cool touch.

“You can’t even see. Go run, I’ll put your annoying toy in your ship while I count,” Lance nods standing up and turning away to run into the darkness, his feet skid on a hill nearly causing him to tumblr head over feet. Hearing loud counting behind him he drops the flashlight giving it a push, hoping the hill is as steep as it feels as he turns to run in the other direction. Keeping his breaths small and shallow he resists a cringe of terror when the counting stops and the sound of running draws closer.

Standing completely still Lance holds his breath waiting as the steps move past him, a streak of darker in the already murky blackness, down towards the still rolling flashlight. “Heeeere kitty kitty kitty.” The voice practically purrs as it comes to a stop, foot stepping down on the flashlight to stop it’s descent. “I wonder where the kitty could be hiding, and without it’s precious flashlight. I do hope it’s not afraid of things going bump in the night.”

Lance swallows, taking in what he can see of the figure in front of him. Thin waist, tone well worked chest, arms as thick as tree trunks, one glistening metallic in the light. His face was still in shadows but Lance knew what it looked like. “Shiro…” it was barely a whisper in the dark but the form jerked, yellow eyes flashing in his direction as a sharp grin spread across his lips.

“It seems the kitty has trouble keeping quiet.”

“Quiznak.” Lance bolts forward, using the hill to speed himself up further as he watches the flashlight go out completely. Laughter echoes around him as arms wrap around his waist, flipping him up sending both of them in a roll down the hill together. They land hard at the bottom, Lance groaning at the pain of the weight landing on top of him.

With a wide grin Kuro pushes himself up, hands on Lance’s shoulders as he grins down at him. “You’re right, that was fun… but I feel like I should get a prize for not killing you in the end.”

Lance frowns pushing the hands off of his shoulders to sit up. “The prize is knowing you can play again. Do you want to go again?”

“Yes, but make it harder this time.” Glowing yellow eyes sparkle with mischief as Kuro leans into Lance’s personal space.

Lance shoves him back standing up. “I can try, but you have to give me more time to get away, we can make it hide and seek.”

“The small ones play that, I watch them from the window.”

Lance tilts his head squinting in the dark up at the face that looks identical to Shiro’s. “Why don’t you play with them?”

“They’re afraid of me. Everyone is. Chihiro is the only one that will come near me. I don’t think I’ve even spoken a word to them.” He shrugs as if its no big deal. “You rip an entire building of people into pieces and suddenly everyone calls you a monster and treats you like a feral beast. Locked outside in the dark with no interactions.”

“You ripped an entire building of people apart??” Lance’s jaw drops momentarily. “How many exactly is a whole building?”

The metal of Kuro’s prosthetic arm lifts up to tap on his chin as he looks up in thought. “I didn’t really count… The weird looking one let me out, jammed a needle in my neck, then he disappeared. I remember it burning, like my veins were lit on fire, then my brain got fuzzy and everything looked bright… and then there was a galra, then another, and another, I lost track of how many creatures I ripped apart… the only ones I didn’t kill were the small ones floating unresponsive in these glass tubes. There was blood everywhere.” He sighed almost wistfully. “It was wonderful.”

“So you knew you were a clone?” Lance steps forward almost hopefully. “Do all of you know?”

Kuro looks down at him with a very unamused look. “How should I know when only the female speaks to me? I am done with this talk. I wish to hunt.”

“Okay okay. So count at least twice as long this time, give me a chance… and cover your ears… and close your eyes!!” Lance glares into the dark glad his eyes have adjusted so he can see basic shapes in the distance now. He waits for Kuro’s dramatic sigh before he obliges and covers his ears, the glow of his eyes disappearing as he starts to count.

Not wasting any time Lance bolts scrambling up the dark hill towards the large shadow he’s assuming is either a ship or a building. He listens with barely any interest as he skids to a stop smacking into the side of it. Feeling the material of it he deems it a building and starts moving along it looking for entry. “You know I honestly expected him to at least HURT you.” The cheerful voice came from above as a rope dropped down hitting his shoulder. “Leave it to you to tame the feral beast.”

Grabbing the rope Lance hoisted himself up onto the roof of the building glaring down at the mohawked child. “YOU WERE GONNA LET HIM KILL ME YOU LITTLE SHIT!” The boy shrugged looking over the lip of the roof Into the darkness.

“He stopped counting.” Lance’s head jerked out into the darkness as he watched the shadow move closer, looking around before moving away again. He sighed, ignoring the guilt in his chest as he turned to the boy. “You gonna keep playing with him?”

“I will later, for now I want to talk to the one Kuro called the weird looking one.” Lance looked down at the boy who was leaning over the roof watching Kuro move in the dark.

“Kuro’s not going to be happy when he learns you ditched him.” The boy turns around and heads for the building.

“I’ll make it up to him.” Lance looks back over at the moving shadow below. “I hope.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So my original plan was to make each stop on his trip a chapter but this planet ended up being REALLY FUCKIN LONG so it’s going to be this chapter, the next, and possibly the one after it.   
> That out of the way: I LOVE KURO OKAY? No way could I have a clone story without him!!   
> The mohawk’d Shiro is the same one Lance saw stealing bread in the market.


	9. To The Father

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Following the boy through the building was an adventure, it was obviously an abandoned Galra base by its design, and he stopped at every intersection and door to peek around suspiciously. After what felt like twenty minutes of this, but was probably only about three, Lance sighed loudly. “So… tiny Shiro… what exactly are we being shifty of when I already know that Kuro killed everyone in this place except you guys?”
> 
> “Cash.”
> 
> “I’m not going to pay you for petty information you little-“
> 
> The boy turned an unamused stare up at Lance. “Oh my god. You really… no, Lance, my NAME is Cash.” He rolled his eyes dramatically before turning back around to peek around the next corner. “And the reason we’re sneaking around is because if my sister finds out I helped you get in here instead of sending you away she’ll probably kill me. So maybe, you know, for me shut up and I’ll take you to dad.”

Following the boy through the building was an adventure, it was obviously an abandoned Galra base by its design, and he stopped at every intersection and door to peek around suspiciously. After what felt like twenty minutes of this, but was probably only about three, Lance sighed loudly. “So… tiny Shiro… what exactly are we being shifty of when I already know that Kuro killed everyone in this place except you guys?”

“Cash.”

“I’m not going to pay you for petty information you little-“

The boy turned an unamused stare up at Lance. “Oh my god. You really… no, Lance, my NAME is Cash.” He rolled his eyes dramatically before turning back around to peek around the next corner. “And the reason we’re sneaking around is because if my sister finds out I helped you get in here instead of sending you away she’ll probably kill me. So maybe, you know, for me shut up and I’ll take you to dad.”

Shrugging Lance shoved his hands in his pockets, fingers tracing the petals of the pulsing flower there as he followed the paranoid boy. Finally they reached a door that instead of peeking in and instantly shutting back Cash opened it wide and walked in waving for Lance to follow. Walking into the room Lance wasn’t surprised when he saw Cash hang back and quickly exit without so much as a goodbye. Shaking his head with a chuckle Lance looked around at the room. It was well lit, a table in the middle filled with a scattering of paper covered in pictures and alien writing, a few chairs scattered around, and not much else.

Frowning at the lack of a weird looking being Lance glanced down at the papers, taking in the scattering of writing he didn’t understand around detailed drawing that mostly looked human. A flushing sound drew his eyes up to a door opening up and a man walking out, letting out a loud gasp when he saw Lance standing in the center of the room. The man was tall, boney thin with gray skin and leaf like eyebrows coming from his body, a flurry of thin tendrils came down from his chin in a sort of beard, and his red eyes were circled in a white pattern on his skin. “An Olkarion?” Lance’s eyes widened for just a moment as he took in the man’s appearance before the man jerked to run towards the door.

Yanking his gun out Lance aimed, shooting at a precise point, burning a scorch mark in the wall right in front of the Olkari man’s face causing him to stumble back with a shout. “Yeah, no. You’re not going anywhere my man. We’re going to have a nice talk about the horrible shit you’ve done here before I decide if you deserve to keep living or not.”

The Olkari man’s eyes narrowed as he looked up at Lance. “You wouldn’t kill me. I know much about you, Paladin Lance, and you are more of the capture and contain type.”

“You’ve never seen me when it involves children or people I love.” Lance’s eyes narrowed, finger twitching towards the trigger again.

“Oh? So you do love your black paladin then? Tragic really that he’s not real.” The Olkari looked smug as he pushed himself to his feet, apparently confident in his safety as he brushed himself off. Letting out an angry shout Lance lunged forward using a move he often found himself a victim of when he used to spar with Keith and slamming the man into the wall, arm across his shoulders, pressing up into his neck as he used his other arm to press the gun into his temple.

“Look you little shit, I have been through hell these past couple of weeks, learned things I never wanted to know, met more people with the face of a man I thought I knew then I ever thought I would and it all has lead me here to you.” He pressed the gun harder into the man’s face. “Now you are going to explain to me everything you know about project Kuron, as well as why a man who looks identical to Shiro, down to his scars and prosthetic arm, is now living outside of this building you have taken over like some unwanted pet after you injected him with what I’m guessing was mutated Sarec poison, and why I shouldn’t let him kill you for it?”

They glared at each other before the Olkari’s face slowly took on a more confused look. “How do you know of Kuro and my injecting him with Sarec poison?”

Lance’s grin was cynical as he gave his most smug expression back. “Because I’m Lance, Kuro wouldn’t kill me.” Pulling off his most confident voice he continued. “And really, I bet all of these pretty little clones you have here taking care of you and stealing for you would probably pick me over you. And if not” he shrugs casually. “Well I have Kuro now, so it won’t be blood on my hands.”

A spark of fear crossed the Olkari’s eyes before he sagged against Lance’s arm in defeat. “Okay, you win. I will tell you what I know. Please just leave me and my children alone.”

Lance scoffed stepping back and waving his gun towards a chair. “You don’t deserve to be called a parent to those poor kids. Now, project Kuron, get talking.”

The man sighs in defeat walking over to the chair to sit down. Looking to the side as if seeing where he was going to start in the air there. “My name is Blanto. Many moons ago before my planet was taken by the Galra I worked with the technology available to me on my home planet to research and attempt to develop a way for any couple to have a child together, no matter their genders or race. I did not get far into my research before the Galra came. But, it seemed to be enough to attract their attention and I was quickly shipped away, left under constant guard as they gave me creature after creature to experiment on.”

“Slowly with the resources the Galra supplied me I started seeing results. So when the time came and I informed them I was ready to try and create this super soldier they wanted me for they supplied me with the supplies, technology, genetics, and quintessence needed to do it. It took me only three tries to successfully create the Galra child. Made with the DNA they said was both cunning and strong. They quickly moved the child to another machine which aged him within only a few passings of the eye of the storm.” Blanto frowned as he continued. “At first project Kuron seemed to be a complete success. He was smart, strong, a pilot one could only dream of, and a ruthless killer. But, over time I started to see changes in his vitals. Keeping a close eye on him I soon learned he-“

“He was having memories from the people who’s DNA was used to create him. Thanks to this he started to form a personality that was much kinder, less ruthless, more peaceful. I already know all of this.” Lance tried to keep patient but his mind was desperate for answers Blanto was taking too long to get to.

Blanto looked shocked head tilting and eyes narrowing as he took in Lance. “How do you know this?”

“Because he goes by Taki now.” Lance put his gun away so he could move his hands around more safely as he talked. “He told me the basics of what he knows of his creation, how he joined the rebels and escaped. He’s a good man.”  
Smiling Blanto leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees. “I’m glad he’s doing well. After his escape the Galra were not pleased, demanding I make another. Once again they supplied everything I needed, and when the child came into creation it was smaller, nearly furless, and pale.”

“They took him away and just as they did with the first Kuron they aged him up to a reasonable warrior’s age.” Blanto swallowed hard, his hands moving to wring together. “But, this time instead of sending him out to do their bidding they kept him locked up, used him in experiments, cut into his flesh, replaced it with their own technology. It hurt to watch. I begged them to stop, told them they were killing him. They didn’t listen, told me to shut up and do what I am told before I lose my usefulness. One night a pale Galra snuck into his holding, I pretended to sleep as I watched him release the second Kuron and they both disappeared from my life.”

“Wait.” Lance’s brows furrowed together as he stepped closer. “Are you telling me my Shiro was just a clone all along?”

Blanto nodded. “They kept me alive during this time, doing minor experiments, but nothing big until it was discovered that the one piloting the Black Lion was in fact our project Kuron. Coming up with a plan the priestess put me back to work. Told me to create another just like him in appearance, down to every last scar. One day she arrived here in person, and brought with her an orb. She demanded I take the memories that were in it and place them in my third Kuron. Apparently she had come into contact with the second and with some weird Druid magic she’d not only gotten his memories but also set up a way to spy on him. Her plan was to finish the third Kuron, and somehow replace the second on your team with him and use him to destroy Voltron from the inside.”

“Something happened though, during a battle, she was no longer able to spy on any of you. And soon it became obvious that someone else was leading Voltron instead of the second Kur-“

“Shiro. His name is Shiro.” Lance growled out.

“My apologies. We’d determined that Shiro had died in the battle, his body probably dissipated into nothing in a chemical imbalance, but our plans for the third Kuron were now unreachable. Until Galra started reporting lions moving about starting where the battle had taken place, then slowly further and further, as if searching for someone. Deciding to take a chance they released the third Kuron in a generalized area not too close to where the lions were seen searching. Sure enough he was found and taken into your castle, placed inside a pod and welcomed home with open arms.”

“The problem came when the Galra were ready to execute their plan… it didn’t work. The Druids could still see through him but when they tried to implement their mind control it seemed to only cause him headaches and confusion. They believe your Altean healing pod must have damaged it beyond control. So they went back to their original plan and demanded more, having me make a large bulk of Kuron, all with the same DNA as the second. They prepared one, aging him up and mutilating his body in preparation. That was when I stumbled upon the experiments with the Sarec. Seeing my chance for freedom I snatched up a vial and well… you seem to know this story. Thankfully I hid away well because I was the only one left alive at that point.”

“So you poisoned him to save yourself then locked him outside to live alone like an unloved pet.” Lance’s voice was unamused as he took in all the details.

“I tried talking to him once, from the roof. He tried to scale the roof in intent of killing me. There is no sanity left in the fourth Kuron, no good life for him anymore.”

“You’re a liar.” Lance clenched his fists voice coming out in a growl. “If you would stop hiding in here like a coward behind these children you’ve brainwashed you’d see. He may be bloodthirsty, but you just have to reason with him, make compromises.”

“I am afraid he only tries to kill me every time he sees me.”

“I can’t blame him.” Lance sighs slowly unclenching his fists. “So after you poisoned Kuro and sentenced him to a life of misery you aged up the other clones enough to do your bidding and used them to your advantage. But, where does Chihiro come in?”

Blanto looks up, disbelief written a across his face as his eyes dart about taking in all he can of Lance’s appearance. “You… you really can’t tell?”

“What exactly am I supposed to be able to tell?”

“Lance, Chihiro is-“ the door opens behind Lance causing him to whip around pulling his gun out and pointing it at the intruder. Raising an unamused brow Chihiro blinks slowly before letting out a long sigh and leaning against the door frame, arms crossed.

“I came in here to inform my father that Kuro was attempting to get into the building. Now I believe I understand why.” She glanced behind Lance over to Blanto then back again. “Why are you here, Lance? And who told you how to get here?”

Realizing he was just wasting his energy holding his weapon up at the unamused woman Lance put it away and shrugged going for nonchalance. “I’m just exploring the area, saw this cool swirly sand and decided to ride the eye, and well here I am.”

“Bullshit, Lance.” Chihiro pushes off the door walking closer until she stands looking down at him, she pulls her hand up and pokes at the corner of his mouth. “Did you know when you lie your lip twitches.”

“Maybe that’s just me holding back the urge to hit on such a lovely lady.” He winks and shoots finger guns at her. Grinning when she groans and steps away.

“Please don’t.” She kneels down next to Blanto moving her head this way and that as if inspecting him, a soft smile on her lips. “Let me guess. The third Kuron remembered where he came from?”

“Nope.” Lance pops the P as he moves across the room to a window on the other side, pressing a button to remove the tint so he could see through it.

“You put a tracker on Sho?”

“No, but you little shits could have just asked for food instead of stealing from me.” He glanced around at the darkness outside, eyes searching for any movement.

“Noted. You followed us, you are a good enough pilot to keep up so I wouldn’t be surprised if you were able to trail me without my noticing.” Chihiro stood walking across the room in the opposite direction.

Lance laughed, rubbing at the back of his neck. “Nah, I’m not that good. Let me know when you’re sick of asking i’ll-“

“Lance?” The deep voice cause him to whip around staring wide eyed across the room. Blanto stood, his chair clattering to the floor as they both looked up shocked into the blinding purple glow in the center of the room. Chihiro stands slowly, one hand on her head as the other is held out gripping the glowing flower dangling from her fingers.

“Chihiro?”Blanto steps forward towards her arm out before clutching his fist and turning furious eyes towards Lance. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?”

Moving away from the window Lance ignores Blanto, easily stepping around him to stand in front of Chihiro. “Shiro. I’m sorry.” He could feel the heat of tears welling up in his eyes, blinking rapidly to try to chase them away. “I’m so, so sorry.”

“Lance what are you…? Fuck don’t cry.” Arms quickly wrapped around him yanking him to a too-soft chest. “Whatever you’re apologizing for it’s okay. God, Lance please don’t cry.”

Swallowing down bile Lance looked up into worried gray eyes. “I failed you. I let Keith continue to go out on his own, skipping meals and sleep to look for you and I barely helped at all. I just kept telling myself Keith will find him, I’ll just get in the way. I need to stay in the castle to help when you two weren’t there…” he sniffled. “And then you were there but it wasn’t you. You weren’t the same Shiro.”

“Lance, I have to tell you-“

“I know.” Scrubbing at his face Lance continued. “It’s not you. It’s not you and I failed you and I’ll never get to see you again.”

“Lance… I’m right here.” Shiro looked down at Lance, Chihiro’s face laced with worry and confusion.

“But you’re NOT Shiro!” Jerking out of his grip Lance stepped back waving his arms. “Look at yourself!”

“Lance I don’t under- oh…” shaking hands moved up, one clutching tightly to the still glowing flower. “Lance…? Why am I… well… this isn’t my um… normal chest.” Chihiro’s free hand grasped a breast giving it a tentative squeeze before pulling back. “Lance?” The confused look moved back up to Lance.

Taking a deep, shuddering breath Lance reached out, putting his hand over Chihiro’s clutched fist. “I’m sorry Shiro.”

“Lance? What’s going on? Please-“ screwing his eyes shut tight Lance moved his hand down and snatched the flower back, it pulsed so hard he could feel the vibrations up his arm as he turned away curling in on himself as he heard a distinct female gasp of pain before a loud thump on the floor behind him.

“Chihiro?” Blanto moved around Lance towards the girl on the floor.

A soft groan broke the silence as Chihiro pushed herself up off the floor, hand on her head. “What happened? Why do I feel like my brain was ripped in two?”

“You were possessed!” Blanto’s arms flailed as he recounted the tale, ending with both of them turning their eyes to stare up at Lance who continued to stare down at the barely pulsing flower in his hands, it’s glow soft and stuttering with pulses.

“Lance?”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have even brought it inside with me but… I can’t… I can’t just leave him on the ship. I don’t know why he’s in there, let alone how. But I can’t leave him alone.” Ignoring the sniffling of his clogged nose Lance pet the crumpled petals with soft touches trying to spread them back out into shape. “I was told… I have to keep him with me. If I had realized I would have told you not to touch him.”

“Lance, it’s okay. You didn’t know it would happen… did you?” Chihiro’s smile was soft but confused as she pushed herself up to her feet.

Lance could feel himself cringing. “Well… it didn’t do anything when the seers touched it… and it doesn’t affect me… but it did the same thing when Taki touched it.”

“Wait, you mean the first Kuron got possessed by your flower too?” Blanto’s eyes widened at Lance’s nod before his hand moved up to rub at one of the tendrils hanging from his chin, humming in thought. “It is possible because they are all pretty much the same being that the flower is able to put your Shiro’s conscious into any of the Kuron.” His eyes shifted to stare at Lance’s cupped hands.

“Oh no, we’re not testing this theory don’t bother even suggesting it.” Lance stuffs the flower back into his pocket and out of sight. “No one else is going to tou-“

A loud crash behind him brings Lance’s protective instincts to the forefront and before he can even think about it he’s lunged forward to wrap his arms around Blanto and Chihiro yanking them down as a large metal barrel flys over their heads slamming into the wall with a deafening clang and bouncing off to roll past them on the floor. “What the quiznak was th-“

“Heeeere kitty kitty kitty.”

“Ah fuck.” Lance shoves himself away from the two stumbling to his feet as he glances over his shoulder. He backs up to the door, fingers resting on the knob and stands waiting. Metallic fingers appear over the lip of the broken window, more glass raining down on an already covered floor. With a grunt of effort a flesh hand appears, completely ignoring any pain it should be feeling as it grips tightly to the glass anx pulls. Kuro’s face pops up, satisfied grin quickly spreading across his cheeks as he yanks himself further into the room. “Found you.”

Glancing over Lance sees Chihiro standing up, pushing herself in front of Blanto, an unsure look on her face as she watches Kuro settle his feet on the ground, broken glass crunching under his weight. Taking a deep breath Lance moves so his eyes meet with Kuros. “Yeah, but you still gotta catch me.” Yanking the door open Lance turns and rushes out slamming the door behind him as he runs down the hallway nearly tripping over one of the younger clones walking the opposite direction with arms overstuffed with books.

“Sorry!! You might wanna hide!” Lance waves over his shoulder at the confused tiny face of Shiro with a bowl cut as he skids around the corner. He can hear the hard footsteps of Kuro quickly gaining on him, the shocked squeak of the younger boy as Kuro rushes past a good indication of how close he is. Turning another corner Lance rips open a door eyes going wide as he takes in a hanger full of galra ships. Not chancing the wasted time to look over his shoulder Lance shuts the door behind him and weaves through the ships hiding behind one a few rows away.

He peeks around the ship, fighting to keep his breathing shallow as he hears the door open and footsteps walk in. “Oh my. Look at all the places to hide.” Kuro practically purrs in delight, his voice near identical to Shiro’s own. Swallowing down his anxiety Lance keeps watch for feet to appear in his sight around the ships.

He waits, holding his breath, eyes darting around the lines of ships in front of him. A tap on his shoulder causes his anxiety to spike sending his arms into the air and a loud scream to escape his lips as he whips around, eyes wide, to look up at the grinning Kuro standing barely a step behind him. “How the-“

Kuro’s grin grows even wider, pride crossing his face as he points up. “I hopped from the tops of the ships.” His hand moves back down, wrapping around Lance’s wrist in a tight grip. “And I believe I won this round too.”

“You’re not going to tackle me this time?”

Kuro raised a brow, smile turning smug and amused. “Do you want me to?”

Lance frowned, tugging at his wrist. “No, I quite like not being slammed into the ground.” He sighs leaning back against the ship behind him. “You know, you really shouldn’t have broken that window.”

Kuro shrugs. “I saw you in the window and deemed going through it the quickest way.” He pulled his hand back letting go of Lance’s wrist leaving a red hand print behind. Cringing Lance reaches out to grab the hand flipping it over to look down at it. Blood flowed out of a large gash near the center of the palm, three other smaller cuts scattered around it, and one cut that wasn’t bleeding much near the first knuckles being plugged by a shard of glass still wedged into it.

“Don’t you feel that?” His free hand hovered over the cuts resisting the urge to grab at the shard of glass and yank it out.

Kuro looks confused down at his hand. “It’s just a scratch.”

Lance blanches. “It is way more than a scratch! Come on we’re going to find a first aid kit so I can treat this because you obviously can’t take care of yourself.” Keeping his hand wrapped around Kuro’s wrist Lance pushes off the ship weaving between the ships to head for the door. “You’re worse than Shiro, I thought he didn’t take care of himself but you-“

He stops when the doorway comes into view, left open Chihiro stands leaning against the frame, arms crossed in front of her as she looks back and forth from the two boys. “I think we need to talk Lance.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, major story progression just happened. Also I cried writing this chapter.   
> I’ve noticed my comment rate has plummeted since i started replying so from now on i’ll only reply when a direct question is asked that way I don’t make ya’ll uncomfortable, i’m sorry if I did. I just like talking about my work...   
> so one more chapter on this planet and then we move on! What will happen next!


	10. To The Sister

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glancing over his shoulder Lance sees Kuro shrug, his eyes still looking down where his wrist is in the grip of Lance’s fingers. Looking back at Chihiro Lance shrugs too. “I just made his attacking more fun and less… deadly for me.”
> 
> “I wouldn’t kill Lance.” Both pairs of eyes turned to look at Kuro who slowly looked up from his wrist, his face looking almost offended. “I love Lance.” His brows furrow in confusion, eyes looking to the side. “Don’t I?”

Lance frowns, shifting his body more in front of Kuro’s. “Talk about what?”

Chihiro laughs. “I’m not going to do anything to Kuro. I haven’t spent all this time feeding and bringing things to entertain him just to attack him now.” She glances around Lance. “Though I must say I am surprised by how calm he is, he usually tries to attack me when I bring him stuff.”

Glancing over his shoulder Lance sees Kuro shrug, his eyes still looking down where his wrist is in the grip of Lance’s fingers. Looking back at Chihiro Lance shrugs too. “I just made his attacking more fun and less… deadly for me.”

“I wouldn’t kill Lance.” Both pairs of eyes turned to look at Kuro who slowly looked up from his wrist, his face looking almost offended. “I love Lance.” His brows furrow in confusion, eyes looking to the side. “Don’t I?” Kuro looks up, first at Lance then over to Chihiro who just gives a soft smile back. Lance stared, mouth open and entire face a bright red as he watched Kuro’s face contort even further into confusion.

Humming to herself Chihiro pushes off the doorframe, giving a knowing smile as she turns back towards the hall. “Come on boys, we can go sit in the common room and I’ll set you up with a first aid kit.” Shaking himself off Lance turned back to follow, still tugging on Kuro’s wrist as they move down the hallway.

They entered a large room with multiple couches and a giant screen where the movie Treasure Planet was playing. All five of the younger boys were in the room. Chihiro stopped near them and began introductions. She pointed first to Sho, who was currently trying to hide behind another boy with a bowl cut who completely ignored everyone, his nose buried in a thick book. “You’ve met Sho, the one he’s hiding behind is Rogie. Over there is Cash and Hiro.” She moves to point across the room where Cash wore a knowing smile next to another boy with a pointed fauxhawk who stared them down in disbelief. Her hand moved over to a chair where a final boy with an undercut sat feet in the air upside down on a chair, some sort of creature curled up on his chest. “And that one is Ryo.”

“Am I really the only one questioning why Kuro is standing in our Living room?” Hiro sounds annoyed as he flails his arms in their direction.

“No, you’re just the only one that seems to care, now shut up I’m trying to read.” Rogie turns the page but squeaks out when a pillow slams into his head. “HIRO!!” The book goes flying into the air as Rogie flings himself across the room to attack the other boy.”

Glancing over at Chihiro Lance leans in and whispers loudly. “Are they always like this?”

Chihiro shrugs with a sigh. “Boys will be boys. Come on we can sit at the table in the back.” She lead the way past the couches to a kitchen table. “I’ll grab the first aid kit if you want to wait here.” She moves back around the couch pulling the fighting boys apart with ease setting Rogie back on the couch and ruffling his hair before leaving the room.

Six sets of eyes quickly turned to stare at them. Lance gave a small wave before turning Kuro’s hand over to look at it again. “You need to use your mind and strategize from now on so stuff like this doesn’t happen.” Trying to be careful Lance moves to grip the large shard of glass and pull on it but the moment his fingers grip the thick shard Kuro lets out a loud growl and jerks his body ripping the glass away in a splatter of blood on the table. “KURO!”

Blinking in confusion Kuro tilts his head to look at Lance before looking back down at what distracted him. Lance frowns, pushing his chair back to glance under the table, he sees a long sleek purple tail tipped with a fan of blue feathers, twitching. Leaning his body over Lance follows the twitching tail down to a cat-like body, covered in a combination of black fur and blue feathers giving it an iridescent sheen as it moves pouncing off catlike back legs to attack with birdlike front claws to attack at Kuro’s twitching foot. The creature let out a loud chirrup its catlike ears laid flat as its birdlike beak clamped down on the man’s boot.

“Kerberos!” Ryo stands, hands in fists at the edge of the nearest couch. “Come back here now! You’re going to get killed.” The creature looked up from it’s attack, tail still twitching as it turned its head nearly upside down, wide blue eyes looking back at the boy. It’s head flips back over, letting out another chirrup it stands up and starts walking towards the worried boy, but before it can even take more than a few steps it’s scooped up by Kuro, held in front of his curious face by the scruff of it’s neck in his galra arm.

Ryo stepped forward, arms shaking. “Please, don’t hurt Kerberos!”

“Kerberos is a bad place.” Kuro stares at the creature which only chirrups back at him. “This thing is not Kerberos…”

“Kuro, that’s the name Ryo gave it. He named it after the planet. Like how Mickey named his dog Pluto!” Lance put the glass in his hand on the table before placing his hand on Kuro’s arm, slowly pushing it down to the table. “You have to treat pets with love and affection, put it down.”

With a small sigh Kuro drops the animal on the table, glaring down at it. It sits down, tail swishing through the blood and lets out a chirrup. Kuro’s frown deepens and he growls at it. “Why does this thing bother me?”

Lance smiles, lifting his own hand to brush behind Kerberos’ ear. It lets out a high pitched chirp and closes its eyes snuggling into his hand, a deep growl-like purr quickly sounding from it’s chest. “It wants you to pet it Kuro. See?”

“What is the point of this?” Kuro lifts his hand about to pet it but Lance quickly stops him.

“Maybe not the one currently bleeding everywhere?” Pulling his own hand back Lance stands up, leaning against Kuro’s back he takes his metal hand and guides it to Kerberos flexing his own fingers on top of Kuro’s to get him to move them in a scratch behind the creature’s ear. “There, see? It likes you.”

Kuro’s eyes go wide as he watches Kerberos rub against his fingers and purr. “Oh, it’s like a cat.”

Lance grinned pulling his hand away, turning to look at the five pairs of eyes now staring across the room at them with identical jaw dropped expressions. “Lance tamed Kuro.” Rogie mumbled, the other four nodding in unison.

With a loud sigh Lance stood up straight, crossing his arms to glare down at them. “Kuro is not an animal to be tamed and kept as a pet or a guard dog! He is a human being and should be treated as such, should have been from the start.”

“Yes, because all humans have solid yellow eyes and an insatiable urge to destroy anything that mo-owww!!” Cash pouts, holding the back of his head as he glares up at Chihiro who stands brandishing a hard first aid kit.

“Don’t be rude.” She glared at the boys before walking across the room to sit at the table, patting Kerberos’ head before sitting down, placing the first aid kit down in the empty seat Lance was previously occupying. “I feel like you should probably do that.”

Nodding Lance sat back down in his seat, opening the first aid kit he grabbed Kuro’s hand and pulled it over in front of him. He got to work removing all the glass he found with the tweezers and disinfecting the wounds before wrapping a bandage around the hand. Kuro sat, obliviously petting Kerberos with an awed smile on his face.

“So how did you find us, Lance.” Chihiro folds her hands in front of her, elbows propped on the table as she looks over at them.

“The black lion.” Lance turns to look at Chihiro, a shrug on his shoulders as he tried to shorten his tale. “I was having trouble sleeping so I asked the lions for help and Black showed me a bunch of planets. So I called up Keith to take over my place in Voltron and here I am. I don’t know how Black knew where to go… honestly I’m still confused by it. If it was just tracking you guys I’d say it was tracking your quintessence but it had other planets that no clones were on.”

“Oh? What planets did Black show you?” She pushed her hands down to rest on the table, leaning forward excitement sparkling in her eyes. Pulling out his star map Lance brought it up, startling when he heard a rush of clattering and soon all five boys were around him, Sho and Cash on the table, Rogie at his right, Ryo at his left between him and Kuro, and Hiro wedging his way between Lance and the table to sit on his lap, all eyes sparkling with excitement at the star map. “Boys!”

Lance laughs, pushing back a little so Hiro can settle more comfortably on his lap. “They’re fine. Pidge’s portable star map is something worth getting excited about, especially for future space pilots.” He grins across the glowing stars as Sho reaches up and pokes a planet, making a delighted squeal when it changes colors under his fingers. Moving his own hands Lance scrolls the star map, sending planets and stars flying away in a flurry of light until he reaches his starting point. Dragging his finger along he makes a path on the map poking at every stop Black showed him even those past his current stop. He chuckles as Kuro reaches out, poking a planet along with Sho and Chase across from him. “This is all I got before Shiro caught me with Black.”

“Well I can help you a little.” Chihiro moves her own hand up starting at Olkari. “I’ve been here, to watch you guys help refugees.” Her hand moved to Sarec. “I went to planet Sarec hoping to find a cure for Kuro.”

Kuro’s brows furrowed, his head turning to look at Chihiro. “Am I sick?”

“No, I think you just needed someone to remind you of who you are.” She smiles, skipping over Taki’s station to the next planet. “I went here for the same reason, and just got told some annoying poetic bullshit that for some reason reminded me how much I hate Slav.” Lance burst out laughing at that and Chihiro moved along past the next two planets. “We frequent this planet during events to… acquire funds from the less observant.”

“You mean to pickpocket?” Lance raises a brow and she shrugs in return. Her hand drops back on the table.

“That’s as far as we’ve gone.” She watches the boys as they take free reign of the map, flinging planets and stars around and drawing inappropriate pictures with the planets.

“So Black was tracking you.” Lance shakes his head as the boys cackle over a planet dick drawing. “But, if you went to Olkari, why didn’t you stay. You know the alliance would have helped all of you. You wouldn’t have to steal, or live in this terrible place with no open sky.”

“You’re kidding right?” Sho interrupts shooting Lance a deadpan expression from across the star tits in front of him. “Lets all just go to the main Voltron base looking like this, that’ll be great for everyone, while we’re at it why don’t we just play dog pile on the Black Paladin.”

“Sho!” Chihiro reached out to thwap the boy on the back of the head. “Look Lance. I know it may be hard to understand, but… I couldn’t leave father, or the boys, or even Kuro. So I stayed, woke the boys up, and made a family. In my free time I went searching for a cure for Kuro in hopes that one day we could all leave here together.”

“I don’t need a cure.” Kuro pouts leaving his planet drawing of a naked woman half finished.

Lance nods “he’s right. I think you guys can all leave now.”

“And where are we supposed to go?” Rogie looks up at him, skepticism on his little face. “It’s not like we have free reign of the universe, even without his scars and missing arm, we all still look like the universe famous Shiro the Hero. We can’t just fly from planet to planet looking for a home like this.”

Lance thinks for a moment then grins. “Lucky for you I know someone who owes me a big favor.”

“So we get to leave?” Ryo looks up hopeful.

“Somewhere with actual weather? And trees to climb? And clouds?” Hiro’s upside down face looks hopeful.

“And star filled night skies?” Ryo adds in.

Lance nods, squirming to get out his communicator without letting the flower escape his pocket. “Just let me make a ca-“

The ring of his communicator causes him to startle, almost dropping it on Hiro’s head. He looks with wide eyes at the picture of Shiro sleeping on the couch, arm flopped over his eyes and drool in his cheek. “Quiznak.” He swallows, takes a deep breath, and pushes Hiro off his lap to move across the room before answering it. “Hey Shi-“

“YOU LET A STRANGER KISS YOU?” Shiro’s angry face filled the screen, his cheeks red and eyes narrowed. Lance swallowed hard cursing Keith under his breath.

“Shiro it wasn’t-“

“No, I’ll tell you what it wasn’t Lance. It wasn’t safe. You can’t just go around the universe on some joyride and let your defenses drop like that! You are an important member of this team and I want you to come back right now.” Shiro sighed, looking down before looking back up at the screen. “Come home Lance, I- no WE miss you… and we’re worried about you.”

Lance swallows hard. “Shiro- its… i’m fine. Really I am. The kiss thing was nothing, I’m sure Keith made it sound like some horrible thing but it wasn’t. I’m almost done here, and I’m totally safe, I have Killer after all, he helps keep me safe.”

“Isn’t that what you called that robot I destroyed?” Kuro looked over from Kerberos who was now half propped on his chest, it’s bird claws pressed against his skin, the back paws still on the table.

“Who was that?”

“No one.” Lance scrambles. “Just a nice alien who works at this hotel I’m staying at tonight!” Lance laughs nervously.

“Lance. I don’t like this come home.” Shiro let the worry show on his face as he leaned away from the camera. “Please.”

Clenching his eyes shut Lance took a deep breath. “Okay, let me finish up some stuff on the planet and I’ll head back.”

“Promise?”

“I’ll see you soon, Shiro.” Lance quickly hangs up, looking over at the table where Kuro had three pairs of small hands clamped over his mouth looking very confused.

“So, you’re going back then?” Chihiro rested her head on one hand propped on the table and glanced over at Lance. “Now that you’ve found us your quest is all over.”

“I lied.” Lance gave a guilty smile. “Well… sorta. I never said I wouldn’t make some stops on the way back home after this planet… and I never actually promised.”

“You know he’s going to be mad.” Hiro moved his hands away from Kuro, standing in the chair Lance previously occupied.

Lance shrugs. “What’s new? Look you guys are a bunch of thieves and pickpockets… and Kuro is a mass murderer so none of you have any right to judge me for stretching the truth to Shiro. Now lets get you off this planet so I can finish this stupid journey and go back to the castle to forget it all ever happened.”

“You want to forget us?” Ryo looked around Kuro to Lance.

“Why wouldn’t he? We’re just a bunch of brats who stole from him.” Cash jumped off the table with a scowl.

“That’s not what I-“ Lance groans loudly flopping onto the floor with crossed legs, hands on his head. “I just don’t want to think about Shiro… about my Shiro being gone. I just need some time.”

“Isn’t he in your flower?” Lance flinched as Chihiro spoke up, his fingers twitching with the urge to hold the flower again.

“Sis, you’re talking nonsense.” Sho badgers, rolling his eyes. Lance groans again, tucking his head into his lap and covering it with his arms. A loud scrape echoes through the room causing him to flinch but he otherwise doesn’t move even after he feels cool fingers in his hair.

“If they’re hurting you, I’ll happily kill them.” Jerking his head up Lance stares wide eyed at the too-close face of Kuro who’s smiling proudly down at him from a kneeled position. “I’ll kill anyone who upsets you Lance.”

“Kuro, no. No more killing people, that’s bad.” Kuro sticks his bottom lip out in a legitimate pout as Lance pulls his hand off his head. “It’s okay. I’m going to call a friend and get all of you to happier lives, away from hiding, abusive parents, and being treated like an unloved dog.” Picking up his communicator Lance flicks through his contacts until he reaches the number he wants then quickly presses the button to call.

The call is quickly answered, the blue robot with it’s large excited eye beeps at him from the other side, it’s catlike ears moving up and down with its beeps. “Hey Beezer! Can you get Nyma or Rolo?” The robot bounces back and forth in excited beeps before leaving the screen coming back a few moments later with both of the requested parties.

Nyma smiles sitting down as Rolo leans against her chair with his arms crossed in a relaxed position. “Lance, it’s so nice to see you.”

Putting on his usual face Lance winks at the camera. “It’s always nice to see someone as beautiful as you, Nyma.” She laughs and he continues, his mood lifting with the banter. “So you guys know how you owe me a big favor for the stunt you pulled when we first met?”

Both their smiles fell as they glanced at each other, then back at Lance. “what do you need from us?” Rolo asked.

“Well… I need you to keep a secret… a big one… from everyone… ESPECIALLY the rest of Voltron.” Lance shifted over turning his body as Kuro started to crowd him trying to look into the screen.

Rolo shrugged his shoulders and Nyma leaned forward. “Seems simple enough.” She stated with a tense smile. “But why even tell us if it’s a secret?”

Taking a deep breath Lance shifted again shooting a glare over at the curious clone before continuing. “I need your help. I have a group of refugees that I need to find a good safe home for where the rest of my team and… well everyone else, can’t find them.”

“You’re hiding people from your own team? Why? You haven’t sold your soul to the enemy have you, Lance?” Rolo turns a curious gaze towards him.

Praying he’s making the right decision Lance flips his communicator around to show the group of clones, taking in the gasps and beeps from the screen he flips it back, scooching so Kuro can be in the screen. “So I found some galra experiments… and you can obviously see why they could cause problems.”

Rolo nodded, eyes wide as he stared in disbelief. “Yeah, I can see the issue. So you want us to find them a place to live?”

“Please! Preferably somewhere with grass, weather, and skies you can see stars in at night?” His voice gets more high pitched as he goes, a guilty smile crossing his face.

Nyma laughs. “Lucky for you we know just the place. We can help you get them set up there, but don’t blame us if people see them after. Especially the bright eyed one behind you.”

“That works for me. I’ll send you the coordinates for the planet I’m on, call me when you get here and we’ll meet you outside of the planet’s atmosphere. They all agree and Lance hangs up, pulling his communicator away from Kuro’s reaching hands. “Okay! You guys go pack, and get Blanto too. We can’t leave him here alone no matter how much I want to.”

“You know he really isn’t that bad?” Chihiro laughed as she pushed herself up. “Just… not that good either, I think captivity changed him and getting him out of here will help.”

“Whatever you say.” Lance smiled back. “Just go pack before they get here. I need to go get my ship working.”

“Why not just take one of ours?” Rogie stuffs his hands in his pockets and looks over at him. “We have plenty, and I’m sure Kuro can help you move all your stuff into it.”

“That’s a great idea! I can just bring Red back later to pick up my pod!” He hops to his feet, holding his arms above his head in a good back-popping stretch. “Let’s get going! The sooner I get to the next planet the quicker I get done, the less likely it’ll be that Shiro realizes I didn’t tell him the complete truth!” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So my whole idea for Kuro is like... a wild animal who is attached to one human and wants to play, cuddle, get attention from them but is still a wild animal and still considers ripping everyone else that comes near them to shreds? Or in other words Kuro is a good boy, he just likes bad things. 
> 
> I almost posted the wrong chapter today because i have so many written and saved ready to post along with the start of my now TWO bang pieces plots and ideas all saved together in one jumbled mess on my phone. 
> 
> If you have any questions feel free to ask!


	11. To Your Surroundings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I promise Hunk. When I get back I’ll go on an adventure, just you and me. We’ll sneak away and get into all kinds of tro-“ his words are cut short by a soft ding coming from the main part of the ship. Startling from the unexpected sound Lance slips from his chair smacking his ass hard on the cold metal floor, his feet still sprawled up in the air causing his body to fold in half before he flops over on his side with a grumble. 
> 
> “Lance, buddy? You okay?” 
> 
> “Yeah, just slipped out of my chair.” He pushed himself up into standing, rubbing at his ass as he turned to walk into the back of the ship. “Nothing to worry abo- KURO??”

Lance let out an exhausted sigh of relief as he waved through the window of his new Galra ship, sending his final goodbyes to the large group of clones as their ship moved slowly away following Rolo as he steered them to their new home. He’d spent days helping everyone pack and prepare everything they wanted, then loading it all onto the ship they chose to take. All of this on top of moving his own stuff and still checking in with his friends without any of the clones getting into the call. Lance needed a nap. Like, yesterday.

Deciding to get his check in call over with first Lance brought out his communicator and dialed up Hunk, skipping over Keith, still holding a grudge that he tattled to Shiro. It took a few more rings then Lance felt comfortable with, his eyes drifting closed at the lull before he heard the excited call “Lance! I didn’t expect to hear from you today you usually follow a pattern. Still mad at Keith eh?”

Lance chuckled softly, draping back in the less than comfortable chair as he propped his feet up on the control panel. “You know I am Hunk! I trusted him not to tell anyone and blow the whole thing way out of proportion and he goes and tells SHIRO of all people!”

“Well, you could have just stayed home. I’m sure Shiro would have been happy to ki-“

“Hunk please, I’m too tired for all this teasing over my big crush on Shiro.” Lance sinks further into the chair, his ass now dangling precariously over the edge. “I just called to check in and tell you guys I found a new ship to replace the broken down pod and then I’m going to take a good nap.”

“That’s cool, I understand. You could have just called us and we would have come and fixed up the pod but it’s fine. This is your big deadly trip all by yourself, no room for caution or help from your friends.” Hunk looks to the side with a shrug.

Groaning loudly Lance smacks himself in the forehead with his free hand, his body sinking further in the chair. “Hunk, please. I promise when this is all over I’ll tell you everything but for now I just need you guys to trust me.”

“I trust you, Lance. I just wish you’d taken me with you.” Hunk smiles softly. “Like we used to do back in the day, just you and me sneaking off from the garrison to fail at picking up chicks because you were too busy pining over the Garrison’s golden boy.”

“I promise Hunk. When I get back I’ll go on an adventure, just you and me. We’ll sneak away and get into all kinds of tro-“ his words are cut short by a soft ding coming from the main part of the ship. Startling from the unexpected sound Lance slips from his chair smacking his ass hard on the cold metal floor, his feet still sprawled up in the air causing his body to fold in half before he flops over on his side with a grumble.

“Lance, buddy? You okay?”

“Yeah, just slipped out of my chair.” He pushed himself up into standing, rubbing at his ass as he turned to walk into the back of the ship. “Nothing to worry abo- KURO??”

Wide yellow eyes blinked over at him, bright orange noodles dangling down from his mouth as Kuro very guiltily set the container of food down on the counter. He quickly swallowed down the food in his mouth, shoulders bunched up like a startled cat as they stared each other down. “Lance? You there? What’s a Kuro? Lance? Do I need to come get you?”

Lance quickly lifted his hand back up, waving frantically at the camera as he reassured Hunk. “Don’t worry! Kuro’s just a- a cat… thing… He must have snuck onto the ship when I was loading my stuff I’ll return him to his family now. Talk to you later Hunk.” He hung up before Hunk could reply, his head whipping up to glare at the sulking face in front of him.

“I’m not leaving.” Kuro turns back to his pilfered food, poking at it with the chopstick like utensils he found.

“Kuro you can’t stay here.” Lance steps forward reaching his arm out. Before he can reach anything he finds himself slammed against the wall, breath knocked from his lungs as a hand presses low on his neck.

Yellow eyes narrowed in anger glare down at him, the fingers on his neck twitching. “I’m not leaving, Lance.” Kuro leans in, sharp canines bared as he growls out into Lance’s face. “I refuse to be treated like a dog any more.”

Taking as shallow of a breath as he can around the hand pressed to his throat Lance forces out a sentence. “I thought you said you wouldn’t kill me.”

Kuro’s eyes widened. “Kill you? No. I couldn’t kill you, Lance. But, I can over power you and I will use that to my advantage to incapacitate you and keep my freedom. Maybe I’ll even buy you a pretty blue collar and show you what it’s like to be someone’s pet.” Kuro smiled, eyes closing as he hummed to himself. “I’d treat you so much better though, like one of those purse puppies.”

“I am not a DOG!” Wrapping his fingers around the knife at his hip Lance twists his body, using the knife to slice into Kuro’s flesh arm and drop down out of his grip, jumping away and pulling out his gun to point it at him. Gasping for air Lance glared down the barrel of the gun as Kuro looked genuinely surprised down at his bleeding arm before looking back up at Lance.

“I don’t remember you using knives.” Kuro’s brows furrow as he flops down in a chair, hand pressed to his head as he stares down at the floor. “Why do I remember you at all?”

Lance sighs, lowering the gun. “Look, Kuro. I’ll let you stay with me until I finish my trip then we’ll find you a nice new home where you’re allowed to kill lots of people. But, you have to promise no more attacking me, no killing anyone, and no letting anyone know you’re here. I’m still trying to figure out how to bring this up to Shiro and I don’t need you making it hard on him. Do we have a deal?”

“No killing… anyone?” Kuro looks up, pout back on his lips.

Lance gives a dramatic groan and flings his hands into the air. “Fine! No killing UNLESS I SAY OTHERWISE! We MIGHT run into someone you can kill.”

Kuro grins, eyes practically sparkling. “Deal.”

“Good, now I’m going to nap. Don’t touch anything, the ship is on autopilot.” Lance shuffles past Kuro towards the giant pile of blankets and pillows he set up as a bed. “Don’t wake me unless it’s urgent.”

Kuro shrugs, going back to shoveling food into his mouth as he looks out a window at the stars.

 

 

* * *

 

  
“Kitty.” A soft tickle along Lance’s nose rouses him from dreams of a continuous flow of black kittens coming out of a box, groaning he turns his head into the pillow under his head. A chuckle and another ticklish touch running down the now exposed back of his neck. “Pretty Kitty, it’s time to wake up.”

“No, g’way.” Lance grabs at a blanket flinging it over his head. Another chuckle and he feels the soft tickling on his foot through the blanket. Jerking his foot up Lance flips up to send a sleepy glare over at Kuro. “Is there an emergency, Kuro?”

Kuro blinks, smile falling a bit. “No, but we stopped moving and we’re surrounded by ships.”

“Excuse me?” Lance pushes himself up to his feet looking out the window at the wide variety of ships, most of them obviously Galra moving past them towards the green planet below. “Holy Crow!! Kuro! How long have ships been around us?”

Kuro shrugs.

Lance frowns.

“None of them… interacted with us?” The confusion was plain on Lance’s face.

Kuro moves over to lean against the window next to Lance. “We’re in a Galra ship, they are too. Why would they bother?”

“Right… so what do you think is going on down there?” Pressing his face to the glass Lance stared down at the brightly colored planet below.

Kuro pushes off the window, shrugging as he walks towards the front of the ship. “Why don’t we go find out.”

“Wha- Kuro! Don’t you dare! You’ve never even driven before get back here!!!”

 

* * *

 

 

They arrived on the planet without a scratch to the ship, though Lance wouldn’t admit it out loud as Kuro smugly stood from the pilot’s chair and turned for the exit. They both threw on some Galra armor they’d taken from Kuro’s old home, before walking out into the lush green grass towards the large crowd headed for a giant building. Kuro’s hands twitched as they passed a group of women talking outside the building.

“No killing.” Lance reiterated as they passed through the door into the building, looking around at the bustling crowd.

“Spoil sport.”

Shaking his head Lance moved easily through the groups, using his smaller size and flexibility to his advantage to get by everyone without much notice. The loud sounds of clashing metal followed by cheers filled the halls. Moving towards another door they exited out into a stadium style building packed to the brim with cheering bodies. They moved down a staircase towards the front, looking over a lip to stare at the area below where two large beasts clashed swords, blood splattering the ground below them as they jumped apart and moved right back in again.

Lance looked away in disgust, eyes moving across the crowd. He blinked quickly, seeing a streak of black moving against the crowd. He followed it until it disappeared before looking up to see another moving in the same direction, claws digging into the ceiling above as it moved with ease. He watched the dark cloaked being stop for a moment, then move quickly leaving behind a small blinking light.

“Oh no.” Lance flailed grabbing at Kuro’s arm. “We gotta go, now. Kuro we have to leave immediately.” Yanking at his arm Lance moved to get away but stumbled back when Kuro yanked his arm back. “What the quiznak Kuro?”

Strong hands gripped Lance’s shoulders and yanked him back pointing him to look down at the bloodstained field below. Kuro moved his hand to point in front of Lance to the figures below. “It’s me.”

Lance froze, his blood turning icy cold as his eyes stare down at the figure, chained tight to a wall. He was clearly human, his body covered only by a pair of tattered pants. His hair was solid black falling in his face and past his shoulders as he flailed against the chains, teeth bared at the other bodies fighting in front of him. “Shiro.”

An announcer’s voice echoed across field, pulling Lance out of his trance. “We’re down to two now, who will win the rights to battle our champion for the chance at freedom?” The fighting duo shifted, one raising it’s sword down to stab into the other’s shoulder.

“Kuro, we have to get him out of here, we have to save.” Lance’s eyes widened as he remembers something. “Shit! Kuro, we have to save ourselves and him. I just saw the Blade. This place is coming down any minute!”

Kuro grinned, eyes flashing under his hood as a toothy grin spreads across his face. “So, you want me to get him?”

“Yes, Kuro. We have to get Shiro and get out of here NOW!”

“The quickest way possible?” Kuro looked like he was about to bounce with joy.

“Yes, Kuro. The faster the better!” Kuro beamed, rubbing his cheek against the top of Lance’s head before shoving him aside and vaulting over the wall towards the arena below, his hood flying back as his hand glows purple slicing through one of the fighters like a hot knife to butter. The crowd gasped, bodies moving forward in shock at the sudden new contender as Kuro swung around lunging for the other fighter.

Cursing Lance dove forward, dodging through the crowds with more difficulty until he reached the arena himself vaulting onto the bloodstained ground, his foot skidding and sending him into a slide across the ground. Quickly shaking off the fall he scurries forward towards the man chained to the wall, yanking violently against the metal that holds him.

A loud sound fills the arena, the ground shaking and screams filling the air as the building starts to crumble on top of the crowd, the arena left forgotten in the confusion left behind from the blade’s bombs. Rushing forward Lance almost slams into the wall next to the man, pushing himself off to turn and look at him. Shiro turns slowly, eyes glazed over with a tint of yellow, blown wide as they settle on Lance. His lips part in a toothy grin somehow even more ominous than the one Lance witnessed moments before from Kuro. His nose was scar free, but a giant gash cut across his face still raised and slightly scabbed.

“Shiro?” Jumping back Lance narrowly misses being grabbed, the short distance of the chains the only thing that saves him. Shiro growls, yanking against the chains with renewed vigor. “Please, Shiro, listen to me. You don’t have to fight anymore. I’m here to save you. My name is-“ another explosion cuts him off, the wall behind Shiro crumbling along with it the hold that kept him back. Lunging forward Shiro tackles Lance into the ground, fingers wrapping around his throat as he leans in closer.

Lance twists, bucks his hips, flails for his knife at his waist as tears blur his vision, his lungs burning from lack of air. Another explosion goes off, causing Shiro’s fingers to loosen as he looks up at the chaos around him head tilting as he watches people getting crushed by falling rock. Lance gasps in air, his fingers wrapping around his knife as he drags it up preparing to stab into Shiro’s arm while he’s distracted.

A shadow falls over them, Lance doesn’t notice. Sudden weight collapses onto Lance’s chest, his fingers slipping from the Knife as he groans. Thankfully the weight is quickly lifted off of him and Lance squints up into the amused grin of Kuro, flinging an unconscious Shiro over his shoulder. He holds a hand out, dripping with blood, Lance quickly shakes his head pushing himself to stand on his own, legs wobbling as more explosives go off. “Come on, Kitty.” Kuro turns, his flesh hand gripping tight to Shiro on his shoulder as the other glows, slicing through and body that stands in his way, his laughter filling the air as he moves.

Picking up his knife Lance runs after him, hoping to god Pidge has learned something about Sarec poisoning, and that that’s the problem and not just that Shiro has lost his mind from being in captivity for so long. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few things to mention:   
> 1) ya’ll didn’t think i’d leave kuro with those people did you????   
> 2) to the ones who said they’d cry if Shiro was infected with the Sarec Poison... i hope you have tissues.   
> 3) i am officially done writing this!! So that means i’m going to up the updates to twice a week! Next update will be Wednesday!


	12. To The Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They were able to escape, Lance isn’t actually sure how. He remembers people attacking them, remembers fighting his way through hoards of angry Galra, wishing he had his armor instead of the galra type he wasn’t used to moving in. He remembers Kuro tossing the very heavy for his malnourished state Shiro to him before rushing into a crowd of attackers with an excited laugh. He remembers clinging tightly to the unconscious body as Kuro drove them away, swerving and looping and generally making Lance understand how Hunk feels as his stomach rolled at the wild driving when he’s not behind the wheel. 
> 
> Lance doesn’t understand how they got away. But, they did. And now he’s placing a bandage over a large gash on Kuro’s cheek as he giggles like a man on drugs.

They were able to escape, Lance isn’t actually sure how. He remembers people attacking them, remembers fighting his way through hoards of angry Galra, wishing he had his armor instead of the galra type he wasn’t used to moving in. He remembers Kuro tossing the very heavy for his malnourished state Shiro to him before rushing into a crowd of attackers with an excited laugh. He remembers clinging tightly to the unconscious body as Kuro drove them away, swerving and looping and generally making Lance understand how Hunk feels as his stomach rolled at the wild driving when he’s not behind the wheel.

Lance doesn’t understand how they got away. But, they did. And now he’s placing a bandage over a large gash on Kuro’s cheek as he giggles like a man on drugs. “Kuro you need to be more considerate of your own life. Jumping into the fray like that could have gotten all of us killed.”

Kuro grinned. “You said we needed to get him, I got him.” He shrugged as Lance smacked over a bandage on his chest. “I don’t see the issue.”

“You really are a beast.” Lance grumbled stepping back to look over the man for any more injuries.

Kuro’s grin turned into a smug smile. “I could show you how much of a beast I reall-“

Lance’s hand smacks over his mouth. “Nope. You can’t say stuff like that. Not with his face.”

Moist warmth tickled up his palm causing Lance to jerk his hand back sending a glare down at Kuro who just raised a brow, his tongue still sticking out. “I have more than his face, Lance. Why can’t you-“

“Please don’t make me cover your mouth again.” Letting out an exhausted sigh Lance turned to look at the unconscious form on his makeshift bed. “Besides I have more important things to think about.”

“You know he’s going to try and kill us when he wakes up.”

“I know, but we couldn’t leave him. Kuro we have to save him. There has to be something that will being his sanity back… even if it’s just enough that he’s like you.” Lance turns his eyes back to Kuro. “Are you sure you don’t know how you came back from your murderous state?”

Kuro shrugged, standing up from his chair to scavenge for food, digging around in the boxes, opening containers to sniff them before putting them back. “I told you, I wanted to kill so I did. I still want to kill, to hurt, to control… to own. Its just less of a need now and more of a… pleasant tickle. Like when you’re being edged and you’re so close to orgasm you can feel the utter-“

“Please, I am begging you Kuro.”

Kuro blinked, confusion in his eyes as he looks over a container of food. “What?”

“Stop bringing up sex, you’re killing me.” Lance rests his head on the now empty chair in front of him with a groan, trying to ignore the color he could feel in his cheeks.

Kuro hummed, shoving the food in the space microwave. “Would you rather I show you? I’ve always wanted to show you what I can do to you.”

“KURO!!!” Lance’s voice literally squeaks as he stands up, entire face red as he glares at Kuro. “Just STOP! You’re not my Shi-“ his words are cut off in a shriek as the force of a body slams into him hard sending him crashing to the ground, chair in front of him clattering to its side as he kicks and scrambles to escape the sudden attack. Forcing his eyes open Lance jerks a hand out of the unstable grip and presses it into Shiro’s face, pressing up hard against the still healing gash on his face. Shiro’s growl is inhuman as he pushes forward against the force on him, bearing down with eyes wide, mouth open wide and pupils almost nonexistent in his yellow glazed eyes.

Yanking a leg loose from the body pinned over him Lance kicks up into Shiro’s chest sending him tumbling back, scrambling back Lance shifts his eyes to search for a weapon before Shiro lunges again, stopping short with a howl of frustration as he fights the chains still attached to his body. Looking around him Lance sees Kuro, hands wrapped tightly around two of the chains and yanking back. “Can I kill him?”

“No, Kuro! We just need to lock him up somewhere.” Kuro shrugs, yanking back on the chain and grabbing Shiro’s hair as he stumbles back. Dragging him through the ship Kuro stops at a door opening it and shoving Shiro inside before shutting the door and locking it.

“You’re going to have to start rewarding me for all these favors I do for you Lance.”

“Kuro.”

“Hmm?” Kuro looked up, a pleased expression on his face.

“You just locked the crazed man who wants to rip us to pieces in our only bathroom.”

“Oops.”

 

* * *

 

They pulled off into a small moon, with constant subtle winds and rustling pink grass, flowers or gold and silver glistening in the light. The orange skies were peppered with fluffy blue clouds, and the nearby trees grew short but thick. After running off in different directions to find somewhere to relieve themselves they met back at the ship, standing in front of the bathroom door with matching frowns. “I could just Kill-“

“Kuro.”

“Kidding! I was kidding… mostly.”Kuro shrugged. “So what’s the plan then, Kitty.”

“You are going to be the death of me.” Lance sighs loudly. “Okay, we’re going to leave the door to the outside open. You will hide over there, and I’m going to open the door and run for my life. He should follow me outside where you will follow him and grab the chains, attaching him to a tree. Once we have him secure I’ll contact Pidge in hopes that she found a cure.”

“And if she didn’t?” Kuro raises a brow.

Lance shrugs. “We’ll figure it out if it comes to that.”

“Not a very solid plan.”

“You got a better one?” Kuro opens his mouth but Lance waves a hand in front of him. “That doesn’t include killing him, or leaving him here… or anything sexual.”

Kuro shrugs, his mouth closing with a pout. “Spoil sport.” He moves back to the back of the ship, shuffling around a corner with a nonchalant air around him. “Ready when you are Pretty Kitty.”

Taking a deep breath Lance reaches for the controls and unlocks the door opening it up and preparing to bolt. He waits a breath, then two before slowly peeking in. The bathroom is surprisingly in good shape still, nothing seeming to be broken or damaged by a crazed human. But, he also doesn’t see said human.

Taking soundless steps he’d mastered with practiced ease Lance creeps into the small bathroom searching for any sign of Shiro. He hears a loud scrape of chains on the floor causing him to startle, placing a hand on his chest over his rapid beating heart. Moving towards the sound Lance takes in a deep breath, letting it out slow before pressing the button to open the panel to the baths.

He jumps back, ready to bolt but is quickly left confused when nothing happens again. Frowning he peeks into the room seeing water cascading from the bath onto the floor, flooding the drain. Shiro’s chains dangle over the edge of the tub, his black hair leaving a curtain of darkness along the clear waterfall. Moving slowly forward through the water soaking into his shoes Lance peeks over the rim of the tub. He shifts slowly to the side and looks at Shiro’s face.

His eyes are closed, the skin around the cut on his face rubbed red, bubbles clinging to the hair on his beard in a way Lance wishes wasn’t so adorable. Lance watches the steady rise and fall of Shiro’s chest, smiling softly down at him before as slow as possible shutting off the water. He waits for any reaction but upon not getting any he carefully walks back out the door to whisper to Kuro who stands confused in the doorway. “He’s sleeping in the bathtub.”

“If he drowns I’m going to feel cheated.” Kuro peeks around to look in at him. Lance shoos him away. Just before he can shut the door back a loud ring and vibration comes from his pocket. Cursing Lance scrambles to silence the communicator quickly swiping it to answer without even looking, his eyes wide staring behind it at the figure in the tub, now hunched over at the edge hands gripping the side and watching him.

“Quiznak.”

“Lance?” Shiro’s voice echos through the room as the two continue to stare each other down, Lance slowly backing away as the Shiro in front of him runs his tongue slowly along his bared upper teeth. “Lance? Can you hear me!!” Shiro’s voice cuts in causing Lance to glance away for a second, looking at the screen to see the Shiro he knows is probably furious at him looking confused and worried back at him.

A loud scrape of chains is his only warning before a sudden splash of water. Throwing the communicator aside Lance turns bolting through the ship, past Kuro who stands in the kitchen with a green cookie sticking out of his mouth. He rushes out the door turning his head to glance behind him, regretting it when he realized how close the feral Shiro is towards himself. “FUCK!” He dives out of the way just in time for Shiro to lunge past him skidding in the grass to turn quickly and lunge again.

“KURO A LITTLE HELP!!” Lance jumps back, slipping in a patch of wet grass and falling, narrowly avoiding his own knife plunging into his skull as he rolls to the side. “HOW DID HE GET MY KNIFE?”

“You left it on the table idiot!” Kuro is behind him, grabbing tightly to the chains and yanking them back, his feet slipping on the grass making it harder to keep the flailing body back. “Why did you even take it off? You know better.”

“I didn’t want to hurt him!” Lance pouts, gasping out in pain when the knife slices into his outer thigh.

“Well the feeling is obviously not mutual.” Kuro yanks on the chains again, hoping to pull Shiro off balance. It works for a moment but Shiro quickly used Kuro’s awkward position to his own advantage and yanked back hard, pulling one of the chains from Kuro’s grip and using his hands on the grass for momentum rushes forward, shoving himself into the air. Lance scrambles to get out of the way, his mouth opening in a silent scream when he feels the knife slice through his shirt and into his abdomen, just beside his belly button.

Swallowing down the pain as best he can Lance kicks out sending Shiro backwards towards Kuro, the knife still plunged in his stomach. Using the adrenaline of the battle and the shock from his wounds Lance flips over pushing himself up to try to get back into the battle. His arms shaking, and legs not wanting to listen to him. He sees the shadow on the ground before he feels the weight of a body fall on top of him, pushing him down pressing the blade further into his flesh.

Screaming out he tries to move, to free himself from the pressure, from the pain. But his arms are shaking too much and they quickly give out causing him to collapse. With what little energy he has left Lance turns his body as best he can to keep the knife from digging further into him. His vision begins to haze, black taking over the edges as the weight is lifted from him. He gasps for breath as he turns to look up at Kuro, his mouth moving but no words coming out.

A loud roar pierces through the silence, Lance’s ears ring, he tried to blink rapidly but his movements are sluggish, the entire area darkens. “Kuro. Keep him safe.” Lance smiles, reaching out to the fuzzed figure standing beside him.

“...NCE!!”

His vision flashes red before darkness takes over completely and Lance’s hand falls, clanging against metal. He opens his mouth to speak, but doesn’t remember what to say.

“LA... old... n.... ome...”

A comforting rumble runs up his spine, soothing sounds fill his mind, and Lance lets himself fall into oblivion.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... how bout all this angst? Ya’ll feelin it? What about flirty Kuro? I like flirty Kuro.   
> Once i’m not too lazy to count how many chapters are left I will properly update to say how many chapters will be in this fic. I think its like 4 or 5 after this one?


	13. To Your Instinct

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s cold. 
> 
> Lance can feel the cold all the way to his bones. He hates the cold. 
> 
> He can feel his body shivering, wants to pull his arms up and wrap them around himself, to huddle up for warmth in the cold darkness. 
> 
> His body won’t listen to him. 
> 
> He just stands there, cold, arms at his sides. 
> 
> Theres a soft glow nearby. Purple. Lance can see it out of the corner of his eye. It’s calling to him. He needs it. 
> 
> His body won’t move.

It’s cold.

Lance can feel the cold all the way to his bones. He hates the cold.

He can feel his body shivering, wants to pull his arms up and wrap them around himself, to huddle up for warmth in the cold darkness.

His body won’t listen to him.

He just stands there, cold, arms at his sides.

Theres a soft glow nearby. Purple. Lance can see it out of the corner of his eye. It’s calling to him. He needs it.

His body won’t move.

Theres a voice, far away, like an echo through the wind it calls to him.

His body remains still.

Theres a touch, it tingles like pins and needles of sleeping appendages as it presses into his back.

He wants to see, his body ignores him.

The touch moves up to his shoulder, squeezes. Lance clenches his eyes shut. “Lance, I’m sorry.”

His eyes fly open, he tries to will his body to move but only his eyes seem to listen. He tries to look to the side and only sees a flash of white in the darkness. He tries to open his mouth, tries to speak, but no words come out, not even a hum.

The touch shifts, moves, doubles to a grip on each shoulder as Lance stares wide eyed up into Shiro’s tired eyes. His body was transparent, fuzzy, like a tv with bad reception. It crackled and fizzled like it was going to disappear at any moment, only the eyes remained clear. Shiro looked down at him with a soft smile, his grip tightening on Lance’s shoulders. “God, look at you Lance. I never wanted to see you hurt, it killed me every time you went into a pod. All I ever wanted was to win this war and take you away somewhere safe.”

Lance wished he could cry, but all he could do was close his eyes as the tingling touch moved up his neck, one hand cupping his cheek. He could feel the brush of a thumb on his cheekbone, god he wished he could snuggle into the touch. Shiro leaned forward, pressing their foreheads together. “I love you, Lance. So much. I’ve loved you since the first day I ever met you, back at the garrison. Your flight was late and you were rushing to get to the base before they locked the doors and effectively denied your admittance. I saw you running from my bike and, god even in a disheveled first year uniform and your entire face red with exhaustion, you were the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.”

The hand slipped from his cheek and Lance felt his entire body light up with subtle pain as Shiro pulled him into a tight hug. “I used to always regret never talking to you again after I gave you that ride back to the base. I regretted ignoring the attraction I had for you because I knew we could be something great. But, after we found Blue, after that bomb went off and almost killed you. God, Lance. I should have never given you a ride that day. Should have let you take your punishment and been sent back home without a chance. At least then you’d be safe. Please, Lance. I need you to wake up. You can’t stay here. You have to leave.”

Shiro pushed himself back up, tears dripping down his cheeks, making the parts that were wet glow a soft subtle purple. “Wake up, Lance. It’s not time for you to die.” The soft press of lips to his own sent fire through his veins, Lance’s whole body heating up so fast he felt dizzy, overwhelmed, his eyes shot open, Shiro wasn’t there, the darkness was gone replaced with soft blue lighting and bright silver and white walls. He heard the hiss of the pod opening, knew he was back on the castle ship. That he was home.

He closed his eyes letting his body fall forward through the opening. “Woah there, Kitty. Lets not fall on that beautiful face now, you just got out of the pod, don’t want you going right back in.”

“LANCE!” A chorus of voices echo through the room quickly followed by the sound of a gun from olden days cocking.

“Oh come on! He’s awake and we want to see him.”

“You can’t keep doing this, Kuro.”

“This is your fault you know.”

“I’m the one that saved you guys you could at least let me see him!!”

Lance groaned, placing a hand on his head as he blinked rapidly to clear his vision. Pushing off of Kuro’s chest he looked around him. He saw Keith, arms crossed and pouting. Shiro looking tiredly away beside him. Hunk was the closest, arms outstretched and eyes glaring over at Kuro. Pidge sat on a metal table across the room trying to look bored but failing as she watched them. Lance shook his head, pushing further to stand on his own on shaky legs, looking finally at Kuro and shoving himself back fast when he saw him standing, one arm extended with a pistol in his hand pointed towards his friends.

“KURO!! WHAT ARE YOU- IS THAT THE BLACK BAYARD?” Lance’s head jerks over to the group. “Why does the clone who gets off on killing have the black bayard?”

Everyone turns unamused looks towards Shiro, who sighs loudly, his shoulders hunching in defeat. “I dropped it on the ground in Red’s hangar when Keith came out carrying you. He picked it up without my realizing, until we got in here and he activated it.” Shiro frowns over at Kuro now. “He hasn’t let anyone but Coran anywhere near you or Takashi since you guys got here.”

Lance groans loudly before turning to Kuro, snatching the bayard out of his hand. “BAD! We had a deal that you wouldn’t kill anyone! Shooting them counts as killing them!”

“We’re in the med bay I’ll just put them in a pod after I shoot them.”

“No Kuro! No shooting! Why do you even… an old timey pistol? Really!?? What are we in a black and white cowboy movie?” Lance turns the bayard back to its base form and storms over to his friends shoving it into Shiro’s hands.

“Cowboy movies are great.” Both Shiro and Kuro say, Shiro in a soft mumble and Kuro shouting in defensive anger.

Lance snorts, turning with a smile to Kuro. “You do not attack your friends Kuro. Now I am going to greet them and you are going to behave.” Kuro’s lip goes out in a pout but he shrugs, stuffing his hands in his pockets as Lance opens his arms wide. “Group hug?”

“ME FIRST!!” Hunk practically shoves Keith away rushing to scoop Lance up into a tight hug, burying his face in Lance’s chest. “I’ve missed you buddy.”

Arms wrapped around his waist and a face pressed into his side. “Don’t ever worry Red like that again.” Keith mumbled.

Another pair of arms wrapped around his other side, face pressing in lower, glasses digging into his skin. “Next time tell me what’s going on you butt.”

They stood like that for a few moments before Lance frowned, pushing away to turn and look up, “Shiro?” He held his hands out again. Shiro looked down at him, up over his head towards Kuro, then across the room before shaking his head and turning leaving the med bay. Lance’s arms dropped to his side. “Was it something I said?”

“Kuron hasn’t really been the same since you got back.” Hunk flopped onto Lance’s back, arms around his shoulders. “Once you and Takashi were settled into pods it all hit him and he’s been questioning his existence ever since. Chihiro actually told him everything after we got ahold of them. He refuses to go by Shiro now.”

“Wait, Chihiro? How did you guys- KURO!” Lance glared over his shoulder again and Kuro just shrugged. “Little snitch, I went through all that trouble to hide them and you go and rat them out while I’m sleeping.”

“Well, in his defense, Chihiro had actually called you. Keith answered and knew instantly what was up. Kuro just said there was more of them. We didn’t get much of a story past what Chihiro told us. Oh and Taki, he expects you to call him soon.” Pidge pats Lance’s arm before heading back to the table to sit, burying their nose once again in the screen in front of her.

“So, how is Takashi?” Lance feels Hunk stiffen around him, glances up at Pidge who has stopped working again, then over to Keith who wont meet his eye. “Guys?”

“He’s brain dead.” Kuro supplies.

“He is not!” Keith swings around, hands fisted at his sides as he shoots a glare up at Kuro. “Take that back.”

“Keith, we know he’s not brain dead he’s just… empty.” Hunk reaches an arm over to pat Keith’s shoulder. “We’ll figure something out, we’re in space there has to be something that can help, we just have to be patient.”

“Empty? Lance’s brows pinch together as he looks at Keith’s barely contained anger then across to Pidge. “Anyone care to elaborate on this to the guy who’s been healing from a unwanted belly piercing?”

Hunk snickers as Pidge looks up, hands moving to bring three images in front if her of brains. “Coran took these scans.” She waves a hand at the three brains and they burst with colors, one is swarmed with lines of every color of the rainbow looking like a child colored it. The one in the center has lines but much less, and a deep inky blackness over it like spilled ink. The last is solid black. “The colors are essentially emotions, thoughts, memories, things that make a person, well, a person. The super colorful one is actually your own brain, the one in the center is Kuro’s, and the last one is Takashi’s. Whatever they did to him, it took away everything. Wiped his brain clean of all humanity and turned him into an emotionless monster.”

“Did you find anything on the Sarec poison?” Lance moved closer, looking at the three brains as if any answer would pop out at him.

With a sigh Pidge shook her head. “Every case I can find on it the person infected dies within five minutes of infection. According to research the Sarec’s poison targets the bloodstream and destroys all vital parts of one’s body instantly shutting them down.”

Lance sighs, finally glancing over at the pod that was near his own holding the peaceful looking Takashi. “I’m gonna go talk to Shi- er… Kuron.” He moves away from everyone and out the door, headed for Shiro’s room ignoring the fact that Kuro followed him out.

Stopping at the door Lance knocks and waits, not hearing a response he sighs loudly and tries to open the door which he finds locked. “Sh- er… Kuron, I know you’re in there because your door is locked, so how about you just do us all a favor and let me in. We have a lot to talk about.” Lance hears shuffling from inside, but the door doesn’t open. Rolling his eyes he shrugs and flops down on the floor in front of the door, pressing his back against it he tilts his head back to look at the ceiling.

“I could open the door you know.” Kuro holds his hand up with a small wave.

“No, Kuro. We’re going to respect his choices to stay locked up all alone and I’ll just have to talk very loudly through the door.” Lance smiles before tapping his chin. “Now where to begin. We could start with the nightmares. I kept having them. Over and over I kept seeing Shiro’s face, calling out for me to listen to him but never telling me why.”

He paused, waited, when he still heard nothing from the room he continued. “You found me after one of those nightmares. When I was talking to Black. She had shown me this big path to take all these different planets and shit. Turns out she was following traces of quintessence that matched yours.” Another pause. “First I met Taki, he’s Galra, fluffy like a cat. I wanted to scratch behind his ears the whole time, it was really cool unti- MY FLOWER!!”

Shoving himself up from the floor Lance turned to Kuro. “Wheres my stuff? The ship? All the stuff in it? KURO WHAT DID THEY DO WITH MY STUFF??” Kuro’s eyes widened, he looked startled as Lance’s fingers tangled into his top shaking him.

The door shifted open and Kuron stood in the door, looking hesitant at Lance. “The galra ship you had is in the area with all the pods now.” Lance lets go of Kuro, grabbing ahold of Kuron’s hand he yanks him down the hall towards the pods and his ship. “Lance, stop! What are you-“

“I’ve barely started my story there is no way I’m letting you escape to go hide somewhere now.” Lance beams over his shoulder. “Besides, I think I know what to do… just… not how to do it.”

Kuron raises a skeptical brow as he accepts his defeat and walks easier along with Lance. “So what are we doing then?”

“We’re getting my Shiro.”

Kuron’s lips twist into a frown. “And which one is that? There’s apparently like seven of us.”

“Eleven actually, if you count the original. But you’re not all Shiro. You may have started your life differently. But you are still an important person, Kuron. All of you are. And after meeting Chihiro and the boys I can tell you’re all DIFFERENT people. Just because you were made in a test tube doesn’t make you anyone other than who you are. You’re a hero. And whoever you decide to be, whatever you decide to go by, I know in my heart you always will be. Not because you’re Shiro, but because you’re you, and you have proven yourself since we found you.” Lance gives a soft smile at Kuron’s shocked face before yanking him over to the Galra ship and opening it up to scramble inside.

“So what are we looking for on here?” Kuron looks over the ship moving to help.

“We don’t have to look. I know where he is. I had to hide him from Kuro cuz it had major side effects to everyone with Shiro DNA but…” Lance climbs up on top of a table and pops open an air vent, carefully pulling out a box hidden inside and climbing down with it clutched to his chest. “If my guess is correct. I can save Takashi.”

“With… that box?” Kuron looked skeptical at the box.

“No! With what’s in it!” Lance starts to open it but stops, looking around for Kuro before nodding. “Don’t touch him, okay?” Kuron rolls his eyes but nods, moving closer. Lance watches him with narrowed eyes before pulling open the box.

The glow from the box is soft, the heartbeat like pulse stuttering and darkening for periods of time, the petals look old and bruised, and the purple looks darker, almost black now. Lance looks at it sadly before glancing up at Kuron. “A… dead flower?”

“A MAGIC flower!!” Lance sets the box down softly, reaching into it to delicately lift it into his cupped hands. “Hey, Shiro. You there? I need you to hold on for me. Don’t leave yet okay?”

Kuron’s face was full of unamused disbelief as he stared at Lance treating the flower so lovingly. He sighed and turned to leave the ship. “Well, at this point I wouldn’t be surprised if the damn ship was Shiro.” Lance shot Kuron an unamused glare before following him out, cradling the flower against his chest like something sacred. “So… um… Lance, I’m sorry I yelled at you… and demanded you come home… and treated you like a child… and got you stabbed.”

“What? No! You didn’t get me stabbed! It was a risk I expected to happen! Well… kinda. Really I expected him to like choke me, which in a sexual sense could be fun I suppose I mean I’m not one to turn down anyone’s kinks or anything and I’d be willing to try-“ Lance stopped talking when he realized Kuron was no longer beside him, confused he turns to look behind him and see Kuron a short way down the hall his entire face a bright red and jaw dropped. Lance coughs, clearing his throat. “Excuse me, I uh… where was I?”

“It was a risk you expected?” Kuron sighed moving forward looking everywhere but Lance.

“RIGHT! So I expected to be attacked, sure my original plan was for Kuro to be ready to save me, and I probably shouldn’t have left my knife where he could easily get it so that’s on me, lesson learned. But, you weren’t the cause of it Shi- Kuron. You didn’t cause any of this. Like I said before, it doesn’t matter how you were born. You’re still a hero to me.” Lance sends him a soft smile which he returns.

“You know, Lance.” Kuron scratches at the back of his head. “After Red got back with you, and you were set up in the pod with your thieving body guard stationed at your side I was torn. Not only because I have no idea who I am, but because you didn’t tell me- us… you didn’t tell any of us anything. This whole adventure you went on which included taming a semi-feral version of myself, finding the original completely feral version of myself, somehow getting him into your possession, all this dangerous stuff you did without telling any of us. And then Chihiro called and explained a little bit and I was still torn, I couldn’t understand why you’d put your own safety below keeping the others secret.” He places a hand on Lance’s shoulder. “But now I see you were keeping it all a secret for me.”

They took a moment of silence, both smiling at each other before another blush spread up Kuron’s neck and he stepped away clearing his throat. “I may not be the same Shiro that fell in love with you, not even the second one. But, I can certainly see why we do.”

“Shiro…”

Kuron turns, a grin on his face. “You’ll get used to the name change eventually.” He winks back at Lance before passing Kuro in the hall, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Keep him safe, I don’t want whatever this crazy plan of his is to hurt him more, okay?”

Kuro snorts. “I’m not a guard dog.” He brushes Kuron’s hand off looking back at Lance. “But I understand. I already messed up once, I won’t let it happen again.”

“Kuron? Aren’t you coming with me?” Lance pouted as he watched Kuron open the door to his room.

With a shake of his head Kuron sent Lance a smile. “I may feel better about who I am, but I still don’t actually know who that is. It’s a bit overwhelming, so I’m just going to take some time by myself to figure out who I want to be.”

Lance nods and waits until the door closes behind Kuron before rushing down the hall towards the med bay. He rushes through the door skidding to a halt in front of Pidge. “Pidge! What if I said I had a way for the Shiro who started this whole adventure with us to take over the bodies of the other Shiros.”

Pidge raised a brow, pushing her glasses up on her nose. “I’d say you’re talking science fiction, but that’s our whole life now. So what are you proposing?”

“What if we found a way to use this thing to… permanently put Shiro inside Takashi’s body?” Lance’s body shifted, feeling the light pulse of the flower against his chest. “Do you think that would save Takashi?”

“Well, without seeing the readings on any of these things I can’t confirm or deny anything. But I don’t see why it wouldn’t hurt to try.” Pidge shifted to lean closer to Lance, eyes settled on his hands. “I’m assuming whatever it is is in your hands right now, I would love to see it, maybe Hunk and I can run a few tests… use Kuro as a guinea pig to see it in action.”

“I’m not a guinea pig…” Kuro frowns at the door. “And I don’t want anyone else in my mind but me.”

Pidge puffs her cheeks out before shrugging. “Kuron then, I’m sure he’d be willing to he-“

“No, every time another Shiro touches it it dies a little more. I won’t let my Shiro die just because you guys wants to see him in action. No seeing it in action unless we’re doing it permanently.” Lance presses the flower into his chest, turning away from Pidge as if to protect it.

“Your Shiro?” Hunk looks amused from his seat where he’d been tinkering with something. “I didn’t know you two had that kind of relationship. Even though it was obvious you both wanted it.”

“Hunk, buddy. Please don’t tease me. You know what I mean. Look, I’ll let you guys scan him, but… no one else can touch him. Deal?” He looks back and forth from Pidge to Hunk, both nod slowly and after taking one deep breath Lance holds his hands out opening them to show the flower inside.

They both moved closer, faces side by side and eyes wide as they stared down at the glowing flower. “It’s a flower, a cool glowey flower, with a heartbeat!”

“It’s a long story, but, I’m pretty sure I accidentally trapped Shiro’s soul in this flower back on Olkarion. And if I understand what the seers told me I think this flower will save Takashi and Shiro by… making them the same person.” Pidge scoots back, snatching up a scanner and pulling up a screen to run the scanner over the flower watching it appear on the screen first in black and white, and then after another run of the scanner a burst of colorful lines surrounded the image.

“Will, it’s definitely got a brain.” Pidge’s eyebrows are up as she looks from the scans to the flower. “But it would take a lot of experimenting to figure out how to put said brain into Takashi.”

“Not to mention any repercussions if we fail. I think we need to take time to study it.” Hunk nods along with Pidge as Lance backs up, shaking his head.

“No, the flower is dying. I won’t lose Shiro while you run tests on him. I’m doing this, now.”

“Lance-“ a click cuts Hunk off, causing everyone to turn their attention to Kuro who stands, a wicked smile across his lips as he once again points the black bayard at them. “Seriously? Didn’t we just resolve this issue and… how did you even get that again?”

Kuro shrugs, moving over next to Lance. “Kuron left his room unguarded while he took a walk with Lance.” Kuro glanced down to Lance, then nodded his head over to Takashi. “Just know if this works he will have to beat me in a fight if you expect me to let him anywhere near you.”

“Kuro you’re not my father.”

“No, but you can call me Daddy if you want.”

“OH MY GOD!”

“I’m not hearing this, nope. Not hearing any of this, this is not a thing that is happening right now. In fact its not happening so much that I don’t even remember it.”

Lance chuckles, shaking his head. “Kuro, you’re evil.” He turns from everyone and walks over to the pod holding Takashi, the flower clutched to his chest. “Well, lets do this.”

The tension was thick in the air. Lance looked up at the pod, Takashi settled in it with an angry look on his face, even in his sleep. “Okay. Lets do this.”

“You said that already.” Hunk supplied, walking up next to Lance giving Kuro a side eye as he went.

“I mean if you’re going to do this the least you could do is make a plan first. You have us here to help you after all.” Pidge grinned at Lance’s look of surprise. “You didn’t honestly think we’d let you do EVERYTHING alone, now did you?”

Lance looks between the two, then up at Kuro who gives a shrug tucking the black bayard away. With a grin he nods. “Okay! Pidge, I want you to stay back and ready with your bayard out! You’re our last line of defense if things go wrong I need you to zap him back into unconsciousness.”

“Makes sense.” Pidge nods.

“Hunk, I need you to hold him still. Catch him as soon as he falls out of the pod and don’t let go.”

“Wait, by myself? I mean, can’t Kuro help me?” Hunk frowned. “I just feel like a feral Shiro might be… squirmy… hard to hold.”

“You can do it Hunk! You’re the strongest person on this ship, I mean look at those muscles!” Lance wrapped a hand around Hunk’s bicep for emphasis. “Plus, Kuro can’t touch the flower so I need him to stay back.”

Hunk blushes a little before nodding. “Okay, you can count on me.”

“Kuro, you guard the door. Don’t let anyone in or out until this is over.” Kuro nods. “But no killing.” The nod turns into an eye roll and an exaggerated shrug as Kuro goes over to the door. Taking a deep breath Lance looks up at the pod, hovering his hand over the release.

“Ready?”

Pidge pulls out her bayard, holding it at the ready and nods. “Lets do this.”

Hunk sighs, but shuffles over to the side ready to pounce. “Lets just hope this works.”

With one last calming breath Lance quickly opens the pod, watching with bated breath as it pulls open and Takashi stumbles forward. He catches himself easily, a hand moving up to press against his forehead before his entire body freezes. It feels like hours pass as glassy grey eyes look up meeting with Lance’s in a confused stare off. The fact that it was probably only a couple seconds before Takashi moved to lunge forward, screaming out when his legs are swiped out from under him and suddenly Hunk is pressed into his back, pinning both arms to his spine in a way that HAD to be excruciatingly painful with the addition of Takashi’s refusal to stop fighting and just stay still.

“Lance! I can’t keep him like this forever.” Hunk scolds, the effort its taking him to keep Takashi down obvious in his voice.

“Oh, right.” Nodding his head Lance moved forward, stepping carefully around Takashi’s face so he didn’t get bit before kneeling down. Steeling his nerves and praying to every god he’s ever heard of Lance yanks open Takashi’s hand and shoves the flower into it forcing it closed around the petals and holding it in a tight fist. He watches as the glow brightens between fingers, the heartbeat like pulse speeding up to an alarming rate he can feel in his hands holding Takashi’s fist closed.

The fighting grows weak, then stops completely, letting go of Takashi’s hand Lance scrambles on hands and knees around to press himself into the ground so he’s eye level with Takashi. He watches the body jerk once, as if testing it’s binds. “Shiro?”

Takashi’s entire body freezes before his head whips around sending black hair flying every which way as their eyes meet again, fear swimming in Shiro’s eyes. “Lance?” He tugs a bit on his arms, frown creasing his brow as Hunk holds strong. His body jerks, as if trying to curl in on itself, a pained whimper escaping his lips.

“Shiro just hold on, I just need you to stay in that body. Whatever you do don’t go back in the flower. You can do it Shiro, you’re the Black Paladin of Voltron. Our brave and strong leader, you’ve survived so much. You can win this fight.” Lance scoots around to keep his face in Shiro’s line of sight.

“Lance what-“ his words are cut off by a scream as he jerks sending Hunk off balance and loosening one hand. It swipes out fast trying to grab at Lance but he quickly pushes out of the way then snatches the loose hand up threading their fingers together.

“Please, please Shiro. Don’t give up on me.”

Shiro’s head falls against the floor, looking up at him through the mess of his own hair with a heartbroken expression. “I could never give up on you, Lance.”

“Uh.. Lance he-“

“Lance, Listen-“

“NO! Every time you say that word something goes wrong. Just keep fighting Shiro.” Lance grips the hand in his hold tighter, using his free hand to push the hair back Shiro’s ear to see him better. “You can’t lose.”

“Lance the flower-“

“I’m sorry, Lance. I’m glad I could at least tell you.” Shiro closes his eyes, a look of peace crossing his face as a soft smile settles on it. “Lance, I love you.”

“I know.”

“LANCE!!”

“WHAT HUNK?” Lance shoots a glare up at Hunk who looks deathly pale, eyes looking down at Shiro’s back.

“The flower is dying. Fast, Lance. It’s turning into a raisin on his back!”

“Just make sure it keeps touch-“ the hand in his jerks yanking out of Lance’s grip, shooting forward to knot in the front of his shirt and drag him across the floor. His gasp of shock is swallowed by still-cold lips pressing to his own in a hard desperate crash. Before Lance can even register the fact that Shiro is kissing him he’s shoved back hard enough that he rolls a few times before coming to a stop a few feet away.

“Goodbye Lance.”

“NO!!” Shoving himself up onto his hands and knees Lance watches as the sad, soft smile fades away from Takashi’s face replaced with the twist of rage. Time seems to slow down as he watches Takashi jerk himself around, arm yanking free of Hunk’s grip and reaching out to grab at his captor with a feral snarl.

Tears blur Lance’s vision as he sees the flash of green as Pidge’s bayard connects with Takashi’s back sending him convulsing onto the ground before he stops moving completely.

Hunk flops back, hand falling on his chest as he pants, Pidge moves forward keeping her bayard trained on the unmoving man as she reaches a foot out to kick at him. After the third kick she seems satisfied and lowers it. “We need to put him back in the pod before he wakes up.”

Lance just sits, knees bent and feet on either side of his butt, hands dropped to the floor as he stares at the smear of black crumbles on the floor where Takashi had been pinned down. Tears fell in silent trails down his cheeks as the movements around him caused the brittle pieces to crumble further and float across the room.

“Now what?”

“We go back to where we started.”

“I’m taking Lance to his room.” Lance barely registered when an arm pressed to his back, another moving him to press in under his knees and lift him princess style. He doesn’t remember leaving the med bay or entering his own room. His mind drifts off to Pidge’s words.

_We go back to where we started._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So how about that contunued angst?   
> It hurts me too and I wrote it.   
> So you may have noticed I updated the final chapter count, in one week ya’ll will have finished this story.


	14. To Your Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Swallowing hard Lance steps up to Black, reaching a hand out like he’d done before, what felt like lifetimes ago. His fingers pressed against the cool metal of her nose. The memories of his trip flash through his mind like a movie on fast forward. 
> 
> Go back. 
> 
> When they get to the end it flashes bright purple before he sees Shiro in his mind, slowly all the forms of project Kuron shimmer into view around him. They all stand, looking at Shiro, before turning to look at Lance. They smile, then explode in a flash of stars swimming in a tornado of movement before coming together in the shape of a planet. “Olkarion?”

_Go back to where we started._

The words echoed through the darkness, it was too dark, no movements, no shadows, just darkness and Pidge’s voice repeating over and over.

_Back to where we started._

He opens his mouth to call out but no sound escapes his lips.

_Where we started._

Heart hammering in his chest he presses forward, running through the inky black around him, eyes darting about for any sign of ANYTHING.

A rumble of sound echoes through the dark. He stops running, circles around to look at all sides.

_Go back._

The darkness is suddenly pierced with a blinding violet light. He gasps looking down at his own skin where the glow was emanating from. Moving his hand up he presses his palm to his chest where the glow is brightest. A feeling of soothing warmth fills him. Closing his eyes he wraps his arms around himself, hugging the warmth in his chest to the best of his ability.

The rumbling grows louder.

_Go back to where we started._

He opens his eyes, startling back when he meets with glowing yellow eyes and a large red nose. Opening his mouth in a silent scream he stumbles back. The rumble continues. Letting out a breath he didn’t know he was holding he straightens his stance and walks closer to Black who lays on her belly facing him.

He opens his mouth, relieved when sound actually comes out. “Black?” The rumble grows louder, is soon joined with another behind him, turning he grins up at Red standing tall and proud. “Red! My girl!”

A roar causes him to jump and swirl around to face Blue, who presses her nose against his chest with a loud rumbling purr. “Blue?? Where are green and yellow?” He looks around trying to spot the other two, frowning when he sees only darkness beyond the lions. “Girls? What’s going on?”

Blue presses her nose into him one more time before nudging him forward where he lands on Red’s paw. Lifting him up with ease Red rubs her cheek against his chest, then moves her paw back out setting him down on the ground in front of Black.

Swallowing hard Lance steps up to Black, reaching a hand out like he’d done before, what felt like lifetimes ago. His fingers press against the cool metal of her nose. The memories of his trip flash through his mind like a movie on fast forward.

_Go back._

When they get to the end it flashes bright purple before he sees Shiro in his mind, slowly all the forms of project Kuron shimmer into view around him. They all stand, looking at Shiro, before turning to look at Lance. They smile, then explode in a flash of stars swimming in a tornado of movement before coming together in the shape of a planet. “Olkarion?”

_Go back to where we started._

Lance wakes up with a gasp, he’s sweaty and panting like he just ran a marathon. Pressing his palm to his chest he tries to calm his nerves, the dream playing through his mind. A loud roar echoes through the castle, soon joined by another, and then another. Grinning Lance jumps out of bed running out the door, screeching when he trips and falls. With a scowl he looks behind him to see what he tripped over.

“Izzit mrnin?” Kuro grumbles rubbing his eyes.

Lance pushes himself into standing. “Kuro why are you sleeping on the floor in the hallway?”

“M’protecting you.”

“…. Riiiight… well I gotta.” Another chorus of roars followed by a loud crash, and then another.

Allura’s voice soon bellows through the halls. “PALADINS! Something is happening the red and blue lion just left the castle and warped off on their own!”

“Quiznak, we gotta go Kuro!” Turning the opposite direction from his original path Lance rushes down the hall narrowly avoiding crashing into Keith as he turns a corner.

“LANCE? Where are you-“ the hallway shakes with the loud roar cutting Keith off.

“Sorry Keith I’ll explain later right now I have to get Takashi to Black!” Weaving around a confused Pidge Lance bursts into the med bay sliding to a stop in front of Takashi’s pod. Not even bothering to check if anyone followed him Lance opens the pod stepping back to let Takashi fall to the floor. Before he can even realize his mistake a hand wraps around his waist yanking him back as Pidge and Keith rush forward snatching Takashi’s hands and feet and latching them in tight binding handcuffs.

“I have no idea what you’re doing now Lance but obviously you got the lions in on it so lets just get this over with.” Pidge stands up. “Where are we heading?”

“I need to take Takashi, Kuro, and Kuron to Olkarion.” Another loud roar. “And I think Black is getting tired of waiting.”

“Help me carry him then.” Keith says, grabbing one of the arms latched behind Takashi’s back and lifting him up. Nodding Lance moves to grab the leg on the opposite side and grins when Kuro grabs the other arm. Carrying the thrashing body with ease the three move down the hall and into Black’s hangar, not surprised when they find Kuron there glaring up at the angry lion.

“Lance? Keith? Pidge??? What’s going on?” Kuron turns to face them, letting out a surprised shout when Black pounces taking him into her mouth then instantly jumping forward to chomp down on the group. They all tumble back in a pile of tangled limbs as Black takes off out of the castle and opens a warp.

Quickly detangling himself Lance runs to Black’s cockpit so he can watch the lion travel through the warp. A smile spreads across his face as Black slows down outside of Olkarion’s atmosphere, Red and Blue already floating nearby. “So are we going to find out what’s going on or are we just going to accept that Lance just hijacked three lions without actually touching them and is currently glowing?”

“Are we sure he’s not the half Galra?” Keith snarked. “Seriously, Lance. Why are you purple?”

Lifting a hand Lance looked down at his skin glowing a soft violet. “Honestly? I’m not sure. But the lions seem to think if I bring all of the Shiros here where I first got the flower then something will happen.”

“What does a flower have to do with any of this?” Keith looked even more confused, irritation twitching his brow.

“It was a fascinating flower. It glowed like Lance is now and had brain waves. And when we put it in Takashi’s hand it was like Shiro took over his body.” Pidge pushed her glasses up on her face. “I bet the lions are hoping that putting all of the different Shiro in the place that the flower came from along with Takashi will somehow fix him.”

“Well I guess we’re about to find out because we’re landing.” The group turns to look out at the trees swallowing up the lions around them. With a soft thud they land one lion after the other. As soon as their jaws open a swarm of young clones comes running out of Blue, laughing as they race each other out. Chihiro follows them, patting Blue on the nose before turning to the boys who have split up to climb on Red and Black with excited screeches.

With renewed purpose Lance turns running out of the cockpit, scooping up Sho and Cash like sacks of potatoes and spinning around. After a few spins he grins and flops backwards on the grass. Soon a pile of excited children lunge on top of him all screaming out a battle cry of “DOG PILE!!”

The clearing of a throat has them all freezing up and turning to look at Chihiro who stands, hand on hip and soft smile on her lips as she watches them. “Not to interrupt this adorable reunion but can I ask why my entire family just got kidnapped by a giant sentient robot lion and brought to Olkarion?”

“I’d like to ask the same question actually.” Taki walks up behind Chihiro, his eyes shifting from her to the pile of bodies on the ground slowly separating with equal looks of unashamed amusement. “Hey Lance, good to see you. Why are you purple?”

All three lions roar startling everyone. With a laugh Lance pushes the last of the younger clones off of himself and stands up. “I think they’re telling us to hurry up. Come on i’ll explain on the way.”

 

One quick explanation and walk through the woods later and Lance finds himself standing at the edge of the lake inside the Garden of the Mind. The flowers around him still glow, the water still moves in unnatural manner, and he still remembers the start of his journey here. “Are you sure you’ll be okay?” Keith asked, looking over at Keith with a worried frown.

“It seems to me the lions are hoping that with all of the Shiros inside the water with Takashi they’ll trigger a sort of soul transfer like what happened to create the first flower only inside Takashi’s body. So really Lance is the safest one here… well other than that whole radioactive glow thing. That’s a bit troubling.” Pidge walks forward patting Lance on the back before wishing him luck and walking back out through the vines.

Keith groans. “Just be careful, all of you.”

“Awww look guys, Keith really does care!” Cash grins, jabbing an elbow into Rogie’s side who just glares at him and shifts further away.

“Don’t think I won’t kick your ass just because you’re a kid.” Keith glares at the boy before moving to follow Pidge. “Even if you remind me of Shiro before he left for Kerberos.”

They all watch as he disappears from view before turning to Lance. “Alright Lance, what do we do?” Kuron asks, foot pressed down on the flailing Takashi’s leg as Kuro holds his body still by sitting on him.

“You need to take your shoes and socks off, and walk into the Lake, bring Takashi with you into the water.” He pauses as he watches everyone free their feet before climbing into the water, some with excited splashes while others looked unsure but eventually complied. Kuron grabbed Takashi’s arm dragging him to the water with him as Kuro stood back at the edge, looking down at his reflection in the water. “Kuro?”

“What if something happens?” He turns to look at Lance, genuine fear in his eyes. “I just got my freedom, for the first time in my life I’m not alone, I can make my own choices, i’m happy without blood on my hands. I don’t want to… Lance, I’m happy being who I am. What if this changes me.”

“Then I will try just as hard to bring you back just like I am with Takashi.” Stepping forward Lance wraps his arms around Kuro’s waist, pulling him into a tight hug.

“Damn, I should have hesitated then I would have gotten a hug from La-OW!”

“You already got to kiss him so stop complaining.”

“OH MY GOD HE KISSED LANCE??”

“Boys!!”

Lance laughs, pushing back to smile up at Kuro. “Help me out just this one last time and I promise we’ll find a place for you to live where you can be happy and free.” Kuro nods, stepping away and into the water, sticking close to the edge. “Okay, now I need you guys to close your eyes and just… think of the memories you got before you were awakened. Think about who you were as a person when you were Takashi Shirogane, star pilot of the Galaxy Garrison and hottest man on earth.”

They all stand in silence, fidgeting in the water, Taki and Kuron holding Takashi as they all think. Time passes agonizingly slow until Rogie lets out a loud groan smacking his hands into the water. “How the hell am I supposed to sit here in this mystic jello and think about who I was BEFORE I WAS BORN when all I can think about is the fact that Lance has turned into a human glowstick that’s only gotten brighter since we got here?”

“Rogie!”

“No sis, he’s right, I can’t think of anything but sparkles over there.” Sho waves his hand in Lance’s direction.

“It really can’t be healthy to glow like that.” Ryo adds in.

“I donno I think the purple makes him look handsome.” Taki grins with a wag of his brows.

“Guys. We’re supposed to be concentrating here.” Kuron sighs loudly, Cash standing behind him mocking him which only causes all the young ones and Taki to burst out in laughter.

Looking down at his brightly glowing hand Lance hums, glancing over at the glowing flowers. With a shrug he kneels down poking a finger into the lake. The reaction is instant, the water ripples away from him like the pull before a tsunami, lighting up a bright glowing purple. A chorus of voices all in the same confused tone call out his name.

The entire garden goes silent as Lance yanks his hand away and the water settles back to normal. Every face is turned to stare at Lance, eyes wide and jaw dropped in identical expressions. “What the fuck Lance?” Kuro asks with a frown.

“Lance, I think you um… might be possessed right now.” Chihiro wraps her arms around herself as she unconsciously steps back.

“I’m out.” Kuro pushes himself towards the edge of the water shaking his head.

“I think we need a new plan, Lance.” Kuron adds with a nervous look around at everyone around him.

“Get out of the water.” Lance’s eyes flash with excitement. “Everyone out, except Takashi, leave him. Kuro you leave the garden, just in case. I got a new plan.”

“Lance what are you planning?” Chihiro walks over, stepping out of the water and holding her hand out to help the boys step out one by one.

“It’s like you said, I’m possessed. But, I wasn’t yesterday. When Shiro was in Takashi’s body yesterday the flower was destroyed, so i’m betting when he kissed me his soul transferred to me instead.” Lance shrugs. “So figuratively speaking now that we’re back where he fused with the flower I can put him in Takashi properly this time instead of a flower or myself.”

“And how exactly are you going to do this?” Kuron was frowning now, arms crossed and unamused.

Lance blinks over at him. “Isn’t it obvious? His soul got put in me through a kiss, so I’ll just… put it in him the same way.”

“Wait wait wait.” Taki waved his hands in front of him. “So you’re saying your whole plan is to clamber into the magic jello all alone with this person who is all chained up and STILL trying to attack anyone who goes near him… and kiss said crazed man?”

“Well when you say it like that...”

“No, absolutely not. Lance, this has gone on way too long. I should have went after you the moment I found out you left the ship. I’m not going to let you get in there with the man who almost killed you and start KISSING him! We’re done here. Lets go, we’ll take everyone else back to their homes and forget any of this happened.” Kuron reached out, wrapping his hand around Lance’s wrist and turning to walk away. Frowning when he’s stopped by Lance’s refusal to move.

“I’m sorry Kuron.” Lance pulls on his wrist. “I wish I could love you like I do him. But you aren’t the same person. None of you are. And i’ll be damned if i’m going to let any opportunity to get him back pass me by. Besides, you think the lions will listen to you over me?”

“Lance-“

“Think about it. The only reason Black let you pilot her in the first place is because we were all in danger. She’s picked me over you twice now already for this. Plus, I have her original Shiro inside me. The one who bonded with her strong enough to break any bonds with Zarkon. You honestly think-“ a hand cracks across his face sending Lance stumbling backwards.

Eyes wide he looks up at Chihiro who stands where he was before, rubbing her palm and glaring down at him. “That’s enough, Lance. You’ve proven your point, no one can stop you. Don’t be rude.”

Swallowing down his shame Lance put his hand to his stinging cheek. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize to me, I’m not the one you went out of line with.”

Turning to Kuron he opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by a hand in his face. “Don’t bother. Do what you’re going to do Lance. I’m going out to wait with Keith.”

Frowning from the guilt of letting his anger get the better of him Lance watched Kuron walk out, followed by Taki and the boys. Chihiro stopped at the exit, looking over her shoulder at him. “You can make it up to him later. So don’t die.” After his nod she walked out leaving him alone with Takashi, still in the water.

He stood there staring at the exit for a long time before slowly turning to the water where Takashi lay half submerged watching him with narrowed eyes. Taking a deep breath he let it out slowly before unlacing and removing his shoes and socks, rolling his pants up just as before, and stepping a softly glowing foot into the water.

The reaction is instant, just like before the glow leaks out of Lance into the water, rippling through it and into Takashi, his body going rigid as Lance walks closer. “Shiro?” Lance stops next to him, crouching down into the water to be at eye level. “You in there?”

“Why?”

“Excuse me?”

“Why won’t you just let me go, Lance. I’m dead. I get it now. We can’t keep doing this.” The look of anguish Shiro tried to hide behind the curtain of his hair had Lance’s heart ripping. Pushing onto his knees and putting a hand on his shoulder Lance reached out, slowly tracing a hand along his forehead to tuck the hair behind his ear.

Shiro looked up at him, tears clouding his eyes making them sparkle a metallic silver. Lance gave a soft smile. “Now you Listen to me for once, Takashi Shirogane. You didn’t die, your body just disappeared. You are well and truly still alive in your mind because if you weren’t we wouldn’t be here. Takashi, the body you’re in. He’s just that. A body with no mind. The Galra pretty much ripped that out of him in their experiments. So wouldn’t it make sense to take a mind with no body, and a body with no mind into a complete and able person?”

“Lance-“

“Oh no, you aren’t done listening to me mister. You’ve been telling me to listen all this time I think you need to follow your own advice.” Lance grins, his hand falling to Shiro’s shoulder, moving up to wrap around the back of his neck. “I promise, Shiro. This isn’t going to hurt anyone. Let me save you and I’ll explain everything later. Please, just let me save you.”

A soft smile creeps up in the corner of Shiro’s mouth. “You know Lance, I feel like you’re not going to take no for an answer even if I wanted to say it.” A grin splits across Lance’s face and before Shiro can question his decision he lunges forward, their mouths colliding in a painful smack that’s going to leave a bruise. Moving his other hand up Lance places them on Shiro’s neck, his thumbs moving up to rub at the hair there, near his ears.

Refusing to pull back Lance keeps his grip firm, but softens the kiss, darting his tongue out to slide along overly chapped lips. The kiss is awkward, clumsy, with Shiro unable to really move due to still being bound and Lance constantly peeking his eyes open to see for changes. Eventually Lance pulled away with a sigh, shooting a glare to his hands, still pressed on Shiro’s neck glowing a soft purple. “Lance?”

“Shiro. When you kissed me, last time I put you in this exact same body. You did SOMETHING.” Lance curled his fingers pulling his fists away. “What did you do then? Like… what were you thinking?”

“That I didn’t want to leave you yet.”

Lance swallows down the tears threatening their escape. “And what were you thinking just now?”

“Lance I-“

“Answer me Shiro.” Hands dropping into his lap Lance refused to look up from them, he could feel his arms shaking.

Shiro sighed loudly. “That I wish I could believe you.”

“DAMN IT SHIRO!” Lance splashed at the water, unsatisfied when it only rippled a little instead of flinging anywhere. “Why can’t you just TRUST ME for once?”

“I want to trust you, Lance. But you can’t just bring people back from the dead.”

“Are you kidding me?” Lance groans his hands coming up to cover his face so his words come out muffled. “You are literally in a body right now, obviously brought back from wherever you are, for like the fifth time.”

“Yeah but-“

“NO BUTS!!” Lance whips his hands from his face one grabbing the front of the cryopod suit he still had on, the other pointing right in his face. “You need to shut up, stop thinking so much, and listen to me. You are going to trust me, you are going to close your eyes and think about this body being your body, because it IS your body, and you are going to stay in this body and get the fuck out of mine. You are not going to second guess me, you are going to trust me, and you are going to make me NOT glow in the dark anymore! You are going to do all of this because you KNOW I’m right, because I am right, and when its all done and I’m back to my beautiful self and you are unchained and free to move around you will shower and shave and then we are going to have a serious talk involving lots of feelings that will hopefully end with more, preferably NOT scraggly bearded, chapped lipped, horrible breathed kissing. Do you understand me?”

“What if I fail?”

“Failure is not an option. If you do not take this body you will be gone, stuck in my chest where no one can see or hear you, this body will be a mindless murderer who might as well be gone, I will be unable to help the coalition AT ALL because being a big glowing purple ball of flesh isn’t exactly stealthy which is kind of important for a sharpshooter, and even if I didn’t glow I’d be useless because if I leave this garden without you, I won’t be the same.” Lance pulls on Shiro’s suit more, giving him a good shake. “So you damn well better succeed.”

Shiro smiles, soft and full of emotion. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah, okay. Lets try this again. Round 2. We win this fight we win the match. 2 and 0 no one can beat us.” Lance laughs, loosening his grip on the suit. Shiro takes it as a win and with a shrug closes his eyes.

Before he can even think about what to do the water around them starts to move, stiill glowing a soft lavender. It starts to swirl around them in a gelatinous whirlpool, raising up so quick above their heads that Lance barely has time to catch his breath after gasping in surprise before he’s completely submerged. His entire body starts to tingle, a soft buzz of feeling just under his skin. After what feels like an eternity to his struggling lungs he feels the tingle receding, starting at the tips of his fingers and toes and receding upward through his body. His eyes widen as he watches his skin darken back to it’s normal shade as the feeling disappears, the light around them fading into a bright white glow.

When the tingle and glow has faded from every part of his body but his tongue he presses forward, through the thick swirling mass around him to lightly press his lips to Shiro’s. Mentally praying he doesn’t drown in space jello before he can finish what he set out to do he opens his mouth, darting his tongue out to run along Shiro’s.

The feeling leaves his body as his vision starts to blur around him. His lungs screaming in protest as he fights to keep from breathing in any of the mass around them. He stares down at Shiro who floats in the water just below him, unresponsive. His lips a bright glittering purple. With a satisfied grin Lance forgets his body’s fights for air as he watches the glow spread throughout Shiro’s unresponsive body before receding to nothing.

Shiro’s eyes snap open, solid vibrant violet. The water around them stops swirling and falls returning to its gelatinous state in the lake. Taking deep gasps of air Lance scurries forward climbing half on top of Shiro to look down at him. “Shiro???? Shiro are you there??”

“Hey Lance.” Shiro opens his eyes, back to their normal gray shade, a cocky smirk on his face. “I always knew your kisses would be life changing.”

Lance groaned smacking at Shiro’s chest with a laugh. “You’re an idiot.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tah-dah!! The next (and last) chapter will be a short one just going over what happens with everyone. Once it’s finished i’ll gush in the notes about all the fights i had with myself over this story.


	15. To Your Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I saw you guys getting your secret hugs on and had to join in, can’t have you hugging on my boyfriend without me.” He looked over at Lance sending him a wink when he saw him blushing which only caused the blush to darken further. 
> 
> “You two are gross. This is why I’m leaving.” Keith turns towards the ship, waving a hand over his shoulder as he goes. 
> 
> With a soft smile and wave Lance leans into Shiro, the smile growing as an arm wraps around his shoulder. They stand back and watch as Keith’s ship leaves the castle before Shiro says anything. “Kuro was in that ship, wasn’t he?”

Lance held back a grin as he looked up at Keith’s ship, turning when he heard someone approaching. “You come all the way here to tell me goodbye a second time?” Keith looked amused as he stopped in front of Lance. “Didn’t know you’d miss me that much.”

“Just making sure you get out of here so I can enjoy my peaceful mullet-free life.” Lance winks sending them both into a fit of laughter. When their laughing dies down Lance pulls Keith into a hug patting his back. “Thanks for helping me, man… and for saving me.”

Keith shrugs awkwardly. “Well, technically it was Red who saved you. But, you’re welcome.” Lance steps back to pull away, startled when he’s quickly pressed back into Keith, squeaking when both of them are lifted off their feet. “Shiro! You’re crushing me!!” Keith wiggles until Shiro drops them with a laugh.

Still chuckling Shiro steps back, his long hair is half pulled back in a messy ponytail and the beard gone all except for the shadow of stubble thats grown back in since he took over his new body. To which Lance is very much thankful for as he wasn’t personally a fan of the full on beard. “I saw you guys getting your secret hugs on and had to join in, can’t have you hugging on my boyfriend without me.” He looked over at Lance sending him a wink when he saw him blushing which only caused the blush to darken further.

“You two are gross. This is why I’m leaving.” Keith turns towards the ship, waving a hand over his shoulder as he goes.

With a soft smile and wave Lance leans into Shiro, the smile growing as an arm wraps around his shoulder. They stand back and watch as Keith’s ship leaves the castle before Shiro says anything. “Kuro was in that ship, wasn’t he?”

Lance grins turning to his boyfriend. “How long do you think it will take for him to notice?”

“The real question is if he’ll bring him back or let him stay with him at the blade, Kuro is half galra after all.” Shiro turns, pulling Lance down the hallway. “I bet he’ll keep him.”

“Well you know Keith better than I do.” Turning in Shiro’s grip Lance wraps his arms around his neck, pressing closer into him as Shiro’s hands drop to his hips. “I’d like it if you knew me more than him though.”

“You two are disgusting and we’re going to have to make a no PDA rule in the castleship.” Pidge groans dramatically covering her eyes as she walks past. “Did Keith and Kuro leave yet?”

“Does everyone know Kuro went with him?” Lance asks, not stepping away from Shiro.

“It’s Keith’s own fault. He shouldn’t have let Kuro touch his knife or talk with him about the work he does for the blade.” Pidge glances over her shoulder. “I’m more shocked that you let him go.”

“He promised not to kill anyone unless Keith says he can.” Lance shrugs. “And hopefully he’ll regain a bit more of himself so he’s less like a wild dog at a zoo and more like the person he should be.”

Pidge hums, nodding to herself. “I’m going to Olkarion to help Blanto set up his technology, you wanna come see the boys?”

Lance shakes his head. “I think I’ll stay back this time, I still don’t like that man.”

“Yeah, but he has the technology to give couples who can’t normally have kids one of their own. I have to learn it to take it back to earth. Hell, when this war is over you two could have a kid of your own.”

Shiro hums thoughtfully. “I donno, this war has already interrupted us having sex more times than I care to count. I feel like a kid would only make it worse.”

“SHIRO!!” Lance turns bright red covering his face with his hands and trying to step back only to be pulled back in tight by the hands at his waist. “That was one time! The only time!!! You make it sound like all we do is have sex!”

“Gross. Maybe i’ll get lucky and the Olkari will have something to wipe that from my memory.”

“Bye Pidge.” Shiro chuckles.

“Wait, are you going to stop by to see Taki and Kuron too?” Lance peeks out of his hand to Pidge’s retreating back. “If you do, please tell Kuron I’m sorry.”

“Lance, you’re not the reason he left you know. You apologized to him like 600 times. I think he gets it.” Pidge sighed. “Just give it time, you’ll see he just left to find a new life for himself where people could use him more than us.”

“I know but-“

“You worry too much. Go be gross and stop freaking out about things you have no control over.” Pidge walks away leaving the two to stand alone again in the hall.

They stood together in silence for a few moments watching where Pidge disappeared to. “You don’t regret picking me over them do you?”

Lance’s head whips around nearly colliding with Shiro’s chin as he stares at the man wide eyed. “WHAT THE QUIZNAK SHIRO?” He pushes back smacking Shiro in the chest hard enough that it echoed through the hall. “Why would you even think something like that?”

“I just want to make sure you’re happy Lance. I was so focused on the mission before that I hurt both of us… and then I died. I don’t want to be the cause of your pain any more.” Shiro looked to the side, a look that seemed almost like shame on his face.

Lance sighed, pressing his fingers to Shiro’s chin until he turned his head to look back at him. “You know what would make me happy?” Shiro hummed and Lance continued. “If we got out of this hallway so I can remind you that it’s you I love and no one else, not even the ones who share the same DNA as you.”

“Well technically, they all only have half my DNA now, I suppose you could say I’m like their dad.”

“Does that mean they should start calling you Daddy?” Lance raised a brow, a smirk on his face.

Shiro’s cheeks turned a bright red. Grabbing Lance’s hand he laced their fingers together and pulled him down the hall. “Absolutely not. Only you can call me that and only when we are safe behind closed doors with no one else around.”

“Mmm… okay Daddy, whatever you say.” Lance grinned as Shiro pulled him quicker down the hall, content in knowing if he ever has another nightmare, Shiro will be right there to listen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So? The ending is kinda shit and rushed right?? Well I have a reason for that and it’s called writers block. But, i wanted to keep on schedule and give you an ending so I wrote this out.  
> But, if you look closely you’ll see I edited it a bit and this is now a “part one of” series thing!! I have a basic one shot plot planned out for what SHOULD have been between the last chapter and this ending that I will be posting once I get it done. Though i may write it in shiro’s point of view instead of Lance’s.  
> That being said. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed my cloniverse fanfic.   
> A list of random facts:  
> I almost made this a luro fic  
> I almost made this a harem fic  
> I still like kuro and taki more than shiro  
> I still hurt that i had lance yell at kuron like he did  
> Kuro totally stole Keith’s knife and activated it immediately outside the garden in Olkarion when he was getting anxious.   
> Keith took kuro to hide inside one of the lions at this point to calm down and they bonded.   
> The younger boys steal the bits they need later in their relationship and make a kid for them behind their back. I may write this later.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading.
> 
> Your comments and kudos fuel me. 
> 
> If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, etc. you’d like to share you can tell me here or hit me up on tumblr under SuccubustyKisses. 
> 
> If you like my work enough to help a mother out perhaps pop onto my tumblr and hit the link for my ko-fi, every little bit helps!


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